International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review The Current Status of Drug Repositioning and Vaccine Developments for the COVID-19 Pandemic Jung-Hyun Won 1,2 and Howard Lee 1,2,3,4,5,* 1 Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul 03080, Korea;
[email protected] 2 Center for Convergence Approaches in Drug Development, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul 03080, Korea 3 Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 03080, Korea 4 Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul 03080, Korea 5 Department of Transdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul 16229, Korea * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +82-2-3668-7602; Fax: +82-2-742-9252 Received: 30 November 2020; Accepted: 18 December 2020; Published: 21 December 2020 Abstract: Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified, the world has vehemently worked to develop treatments and vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at an unprecedented speed. Few of the repositioned drugs for COVID-19 have shown that they were efficacious and safe. In contrast, a couple of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 will be ready for mass rollout early next year. Despite successful vaccine development for COVID-19, the world will face a whole new set of challenges including scale-up manufacturing, cold-chain logistics, long-term safety, and low vaccine acceptance. We highlighted the importance of knowledge sharing and collaboration to find innovative answers to these challenges and to prepare for newly emerging viruses.