The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons sue FDA to end restrictions on hydroxychloroquine, despite evidence it can be life threatening
pharmafile | June 3, 2020 | News story | Research and Development | AAPS, COVID-19, coronaviryus
The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons have filed a lawsuit against the FDA due to it blocking widespread access to hydroxychloroquine, previously touted by President Trump as an effective COVID-19 treatment.
AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D. told the Arizona Daily Independent, that: “It is shocking that medical workers in Brazil will have access to HCQ as a prophylaxis while Americans are blocked by the FDA from accessing the same medication for the same use.”
AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly also commented and said: “There is no legal or factual basis for the FDA to limit use of HCQ. The FDA’s restrictions on HCQ for Americans are completely indefensible in court.”
“Entrenched, politically biased officials at the FDA should not be allowed to interfere with Americans’ right to access medication donated to the federal government for public use.”
Last month, the AAPS sent a letter to Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey urging the wider use of hydroxychloroquine, based on data they have collected. This letter said that the drug helped 91% of patients recover.
The AAPS data included some larger trials, such as Dr Vladmir Zelenko’s treatment of 405 coronavirus patients in New York and a study of 200 patients with the Veteran Affairs. But much of the data falls into more anecdotal categories with small or one off doses of the drug. Several rows in the table only have a doctor’s name, with no data, and others have just one patient being tested with the drug.
The AAPS itself is an organisation that opposes abortion and universal healthcare. Their statement of principles declares that it is “evil” and “immoral” for physicians to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. It has previously said that electronic medical records are a form of data control that was formerly employed by the East German Stasi. On its website it also a ran a story in 2008 that Presidential candidate Barack Obama may be hypnotising voters.
America and Europe have put limits on the use of hydroxychloroquine. France, Italy and Britain have restricted access to it, as they believe there is too much risk for not enough benefit.
The initial evidence that pointed to hydroxychloroquine working as a coronavirus treatment came from France, with Professor Didier Raoult’s study of 36 people. Raoult said he cured 100% of the patients but left out that six dropped out after the first six days and they died, were transferred to the ICU or couldn’t tolerate the drug.
However, a study in Brazil was called off after it suffered 11 fatalities while another Chinese study showed that hydroxychloroquine did not speed up recovery from the coronavirus.
The results of another study into the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients, has cast further doubts on its effectiveness in treating the virus. The research, titled the “Observational Study of Hydroxychloroquine in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19”, was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers concluded that: “Hydroxychloroquine administration was not associated with either a greatly lowered or an increased risk of the composite end point of intubation or death. Randomized, controlled trials of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19 are needed.”
Conor Kavanagh
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