When might experimental drugs to treat Covid-19 be ready? A forecast

There is a desperate need for new medicines to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has shut down much of the world. A vaccine to prevent infection entirely would be even better.

Drug companies and medical researchers are making heroic efforts to deliver new medicines. Several dozen are now in development, and you can see highlights of those efforts here. Studies so far are mostly small and lack real control groups, making it hard for researchers to be sure of their conclusions. 

Doctors on the front lines have been trying older medicines, such as the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, in the hopes that they will prove effective. Large studies of such medicines are already in process.

But the relentless pace of the virus’ spread and a