Benzimidazole, the benzo derivative of imidazole, is a class of bicyclic aromatic organic compound consisting of six‐membered benzene ring fused to five‐membered imidazole at 4‐ and 5‐positions of the imidazole ring. It is a vital pharmacophore of many biologically active heterocyclic compounds with a variety of pharmacological activities. Over the time, benzimidazole and its derivatives have evolved as vibrant heterocyclic systems due to their potency in a wide range of bioactive compounds like analgesics, antifungals, anti‐inflammatory, antihypertensives, proton pump inhibitors, anti‐HIV, antiviral, and so on. Multi‐drug resistance in cancer that led to the failure of many chemotherapeutic drugs is a major concern. Various approaches are being developed to overcome this problem. One of them is target based drug discovery, which is an effective method to develop a novel anticancer drug. To develop newer drugs, previously reported work needs to be studied. Keeping this in mind, last 5 years literature on benzimidazole used as anticancer agents has been reviewed and summarized in the paper herein. This review article along with the target of cancer also deal with structure activity relationship of various compounds having benzimidazole ring.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported to be transmitted from bats to humans and, became a pandemic in 2020. COVID-19 is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide and still, the numbers are increasing. Further, despite the availability of vaccines, mutation in the virus continuously poses a threat of re-emergence of the more lethal form of the virus. So far, the repurposing of drugs has been exercised heavily for the identification of therapeutic agents against COVID-19, which led FDA to approve many drugs for the same e.g., remdesivir, favipiravir, ribavirin, etc. The anti-COVID drugs explored via other approaches include nirmatrelvir (used in combination with ritonavir as Paxlovid), tixagevimab and cilgavimab (both used in combination with each other) and others. However, these approved drugs failed to achieve a significant clinical outcome. Globally, natural bioactive have also been explored for anti-COVID-19 effects, based on their traditional medicinal values. Although the clinical findings suggest that FDA-approved drugs and natural bioactives can help reducing the overall mortality rate but the significant clinical outcome was not achieved. Therefore, the focus has been shifted towards new drug development. In line with that, a lot of work has been done and still going on to explore heterocyclic compounds as potent anti-COVID-19 drugs. Several heterocyclic scaffolds have been previously reported with potent antiinflammatory, anticancer, anti-viral, antimicrobial and anti-tubercular effects. Few of them are under consideration for clinical trials whereas others are under preclinical investigation. Hence, this review discusses the evidence of rationally designed and tested heterocyclic compounds acting on different targets against COVID-19. The present manuscript will help the researches and will serve as a pivotal resource in the design and development of novel anti-COVID-19 drugs.