Washington, USA
A limited emergency-use
authorization for two antimalarial drugs touted as game-changers by President
Donald Trump has been issued by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat
coronavirus patients.
In a statement published Sunday,
the US Department of Health and Human Services detailed recent donations of
medicine to a national stockpile – including chloroquine and
hydroxychloroquine, both being investigated as potential COVID-19 treatments.
It said the FDA had allowed
them "to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and
adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not
available or feasible."
Trump said
last week that the two drugs could be a "gift from God," despite
scientists warning against the dangers of overhyping unproven treatments.
Many researchers including
Anthony Fauci, the United States' leading infectious disease expert, have urged
the public to remain cautious until larger clinical trials validate smaller
studies.
Two US medical bodies – the
National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority – are currently working to plan such trials.
Some in the scientific
community fear Trump's endorsement of the medicines could create shortages for
patients who need them to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, diseases for
which they are approved.
The US has more than 140,000
novel coronavirus cases and 2,489 deaths, according to a tracker maintained by
Johns Hopkins University.
No comments:
Post a Comment