Two medications commonly used to treat inflammation and HIV infection have been repurposed in the fight against COVID-19. Researchers found combined cepharanthine/nelfinavir therapy can hasten the clearance of coronavirus infection from a person's lungs in as little as 4.9 days. Cepharanthine hindered the entry of SARS_CoV_2 into cells, preventing the virus from binding to a protein on the cell membrane it uses as a gateway. Nelfinavir prevented the virus from replicating inside cells by inhibiting a protein the virus relies on for replication.
