Research led by infectious disease specialist Philippe Gautret, M.D., Ph.D., at Aix-Marseille Université in Marseille, France published a new study involving 20 patients with coronavirus treated with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychorolquine and azithromycin showed a dramatic end to the disease in five days. Speaking today at the White House, FDA Director Stephen Hahn said he approved the hydroxychorloquine 200 mg, three times a day, for treating coronavirus AKA Covid-19 or SARS CoV-2 immediately. Gautret et al. found when used in combination with azithromycin Covid-19 symptoms were eliminated in five days or less. “We’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that’s where the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has been so great,” Trump said at today’s White House press briefing. With Trump by his side, the FDA chief confirmed off-label approval for hydroxycholoquine AKA Plaquenil
Sold under the brand name of Plaquenil, the drug has been flying off pharmacy shelves, now that Hahn approved its used under the FDA’s “compassionate use” provisions, allowing medications to market which have not gone through the rigorous FDA approval process. Approving Plaquenil was an easy decision since its been safely used to treat malaria for over 50 years. “If there is an experimental drug that is potentially available, a doctor could ask for that drug to be used in a patient,” Hahn said. “We have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that,” referring to approving Plaquenil for off-label use of treating Covid-19. Having some drug protocol to treat something as deadly as SARS CoV-19 gives physicians the tools needed to save lives. If Gautret’s drug protocol proves effective in treating Covid-19, it could be widely prescribed soon.
Used also by treating physicians in Wuhan, China, the origin of the SARS CoV-2 outbreak, it could account for why China has seen, if the data supplied is correct, a dramatic reduction in new Covid-19 cases. China has only 34 new cases of Covid-19 today, compared with the U.S. 2,096, Italy 5,322 and Spain 2,626. “As an example, many Americans have read studies and heard media report about this drug chloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug,” Hahan said. Hydroxychoroquine in a synthetic form of quinine, used to treat malaria since 1820. Derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, it’s been used for malaria since 1632. “It’s already approved, as the president said, for the treatment of malaria as well as arthritis condition,” said Hahn, gladly bringing hyroxychloroquine or Plaquenil to treat Covid-19. Off-label drug use is a common practice by the medical community.
Forbes reported that the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported March 9 that it successfully used hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus cases. “[We] predict that the drug has good potential to combat the disease,” wrote the study’s authors in Cell Discovery from Wuhan, China. Using 36 patients in three groups, two experimental groups of 10 patients each, one receiving only Plaquenil and the other receiving Plaquenil and Azithromycin, produced surprising results. The group receiving both Plaquenil and azithromycin had zero SARS CoV-2 symptoms after five days. The group receiving Plaquenil only had a significant reduction in symptoms and the control group receiving placebo saw no improvements. Leading the research at L’Institut Hospitialo-Unversitaire in Marseille, infectious disease researcher Didier Raoult completed the preliminary study, leading the FDA to give its approval.
Bogged down in controversy over the origin of SARS CoV-2, the media should get the word out about Chinese and French researchers coming up with a cutting edge treatment for coronavirus. Hahn acknowledged that the first clinical trials on humans for a coronavirus vaccine started March 16, but won’t be commercially available for at least a year, all the more reason to develop effective treatments to save lives. Media seems focused on Trump calling Covid-19 as “Chinese virus” or, yesterday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.) blaming on outbreak on China consuming bats and other exotic animals. What’s important now is slowing the spread of the coronavirus and finding urgent treatments to save lives. Eventually, it will come out how the latest viral outbreak started and what can be done to prevent future outbreaks. Too many viruses have originated in China in recent years to not study why.
Trump’s coronavirus team lead by 60-year-old Vice President Mike Pence has done a good job of triaging with all-important players to slow the virus spread and find urgent treatments to save lives. Hahn’s approval of the French treatment protocol of hyroxychloroquine and azithromycin, though preliminary, is a positive step to save lives. Instead of focusing on controversial statements by politicians, the media should disseminate information to the public on how to slow the virus spread and new drug protocols for reversing Covid-19. Judging by China’s dramatic reduction in new Covid-19 cases, they’re on to something, both in terms of appropriate quarantining and new drug therapies. U.S., Italy, Spain and other countries showing exponential increases in new cases, should follow the lead of China who seems to have gotten a handle on how to manage the SARS CoV-2 outbreak.
