United States President Donald Trump has announced that an existing drug prescribed for malaria and some forms of acute arthritis was among a range of drugs being tested for treating coronavirus and could soon be available to the public, though his FDA chief said later it was too early to say when.
“It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody. It’s shown very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately,” Trump said of the drug, Hydroxychloroquine.
“And it’s shown very encouraging, very, very encouraging early results,” Trump said on Thursday.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said it was important to give Americans hope — but not false hope.
He also sounded an optimistic but cautionary note on the drug’s potential effectiveness as a treatment for the virus.
“The President has asked us to expedite this and what I want to assure you, because of the questions that were asked, we want to make sure that this is done well and right for the American people,” Hahn said.
“The president is right. With an off the shelf drug, we do have a lot of information about the side effects so that really helps in terms of expediting but I want to assure you that we’re working as quickly as we can but we don’t want to speculate about a timeline at this point,” he continued.
“We need to make sure the new treatments will get the right drug to the right patients at the right dosage at the right time. FDA’s responsibility to the American people is to ensure that products are safe and effective. We are continuing to do that.”
The FDA chief also said that a vaccine for the drug would likely take at least 12 months.
The drug is one of a range of potential treatments for the deadly coronavirus that were being tested by the Food and Drug Administration.
“We slashed red tape to develop vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done, long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this,” Trump said. – NEW YORK POST
