US Drug Authority Approves Limited Use of Antimalarial Drugs as Treatment for COVID-19
Earlier last week President Donald Trump had endorsed two antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Coronavirus. On the back of the claims made by the POTUS, calling the drugs “gift from God” for COVID-19 patients, there was a surge in demand for the two medicines in the market.
A week later, despite the researcher’s expert’s concerns over usage and endorsement of untested drugs for curing the novel Coronavirus, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for limited-emergency use of the antimalarial drugs to cure patients of Coronavirus.
As per a report published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, FDA has allowed chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine “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.”
The move has come regardless of American researchers urging the public to refrain from using the drugs until larger studies and clinical trials are carried out. The medical experts also expressed concerns over the shortage of medicines for patients lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, the diseases which have been proven to be cured by the drugs.
As for now two US medical bodies National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority are conducting trials over the potential usefulness of the two antimalarial drugs to cure Coronavirus.
