More than 150 different drugs are being researched around the world. Most are existing drugs that are being trialled against the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Solidarity trial aimed at assessing the most promising treatments.
The UK says its Recovery trial is the the world’s biggest, with more than 5,000 patients already taking part.
And multiple research centres around the world are attempting to use survivors’ blood as a treatment.
What types of drugs might work?
There are three broad approaches being investigated:
Antiviral drugs that directly affect the coronavirus’s ability to thrive inside the body.
Drugs that can calm the immune system – patients become seriously ill when their immune system overreacts and starts causing collateral damage to the body.
Antibodies, either from survivors’ blood or made in a lab, that can attack the virus.
What is the most promising coronavirus drug?
Dr Bruce Aylward, from the World Health Organization, said remdesivir was the only drug that showed any signs of effectiveness, after he visited China.
The antiviral drug was originally designed to treat Ebola, but other options proved more effective.
It has since been shown to be effective at treating other deadly coronaviruses (Middle East respiratory syndrome and severe acute respiratory syndrome) in animal studies, leading to hopes it will also be effective against the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Leaked results from trials led by the University of Chicago also suggested the drug was effective.
It is one of the four drugs in the WHO Solidarity trial and its manufacturer, Gilead, is also organising trials.
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