On Apr. 7, 2020, Karyopharm Therapeutics announced plans to initiate a global randomized clinical trial for low dose oral selinexor in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19. Selinexor, marketed as XPOVIO, is currently approved at higher doses by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Selinexor is an oral, selective inhibitor of nuclear export (SINE) compound which blocks the cellular protein XPO1. In particular, SINE compounds have recently been identified as having the potential to interfere with key host protein interactions with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.2