hydroxychloroquine

Photo by LadyofProcrastination

More than 100 Americans have died after taking the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent coronavirus.

This was found in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal’s review of the FDA’s adverse events reporting system. They found that 293 people had died from taking hydroxychloroquine in the first half of 2020 compared to just 75 in the first half of 2019. Upon further investigation from the Sentinal, it found that 218 of these deaths were from people taking hydroxychloroquine due to coronavirus.

U.S. Army photo by Jason W. Edwards

Researchers at the University of Oxford have said that hydroxychloroquine could be beneficial to COVID-19 patients, despite a general lack of evidence for its effectiveness.           

License: CC0 Public Domain

Another study has shown hydroxychloroquine is ineffective in treating the coronavirus.

The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and found that the drug did not improve the conditions of the patients who participated. It involved 667 people across 55 hospitals in Brazil. The trial contained three groups, patients who took hydroxychloroquine, patients who took the drug in combination with azithromycin and another group who took a placebo.

U.S. Army photo by Jason W. Edwards

The newest clinical trial into hydroxychloroquine has proved unsuccessful in treating coronavirus patients.

A recent study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and showed the results of a randomised study conducted between 22 March and 20 May. Conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota, 491 patients were either given hydroxychloroquine or a placebo within the first four days of them showing coronavirus symptoms.

Photo by Andrew from Flickr

The Sandoz division of Novartis will not make a profit on the 15 generics it is making available to developing nations to help them deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

This includes medicines that will range from steroids to antibiotics and diarrhea pills, which will be distributed to 79 countries the World Bank lists as low to lower-middle income.  The company said it is doing this to help keep vulnerable healthcare systems in Africa, Asia, South America and Eastern Europe from becoming overloaded.

Photo by NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine after the drug was found to have no real benefit in treating COVID-19.

This comes following last week’s removal of the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine from the emergency use category by the FDA.

U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Christopher Schepers

The US is now sitting on a pile of 66 million anti-malaria pills, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, after they were removed from emergency approval by the FDA.

The FDA had originally approved both drugs for use in coronavirus patients on 28 March, and it was rushed to the former epicenter of the virus: New York. On 15 June, the FDA removed this emergency approval due to concerns over the health risks of using it in coronavirus patients taking it as well as the lack of proof these drugs are actually effective.

Photo by FDA/CDC

The FDA has revoked its emergency approval of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine due to health risks and a lack of effectiveness in treating COVID-19.

This emergency use authorization allowed the drugs to be donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be used to treat coronavirus patients in hospital when they could not get the treatments through a clinical trial.

License to use Creative Commons Zero/Photo from PeakPix

The Lancet has retracted a paper that claimed to show that people who took hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 had a higher risk of developing heart rhythm problems and dying than those who did not.

The author of the paper, Professor Mandeep Mehra, from the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, said he could no longer vouch for the data’s accuracy. One of the other authors is Dr Sapan Desai, who is also the founder of the organisation who provided the data: Surgisphere Corporation.

License to use Creative Commons Zero/Photo from PeakPix

The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine does not protect people from COVID-19, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

The trial recruited people who were at moderate to high risk of contracting COVID-19 across the US and Canada, enrolling 821 mostly young and healthy adults. The average age was 40 and all had no symptoms when they were first put on the trial.