A drug already approved in the US for eye disease may stop the reproduction of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study.

The results indicate that the drug called verteporfin, used for treating eye-disease, may be a candidate to treat COVID-19, and its status as FDA-approved could make it easier to launch clinical trials to verify its safety and effectiveness against the coronavirus.

The interdisciplinary study, led by University of California, Los Angeles and published in PLOS Biology, showed that the Hippo signalling pathway is activated within days of SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting that treatments using the mechanism could be deployed before symptoms arise to reduce the severity of disease, the study said.