Posted on 03/20/2020 9:30:07 AM PDT by Red Badger
President Trump said the drug has shown 'very, very encouraging early results'
Pharmaceutical company Bayer has responded to the ongoing outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus — formally known as COVID-19 — by donating millions of tablets of an anti-malarial drug that could be used to combat the disease to the United States government. Ditch the fake news ==> Click here to get news you can trust sent right to your inbox. It's free!
According to a story published Thursday at MarketWatch:
U.S. listed shares of Bayer AG bayry rose 3% in trading on Thursday afternoon after it said it had donated three million tablets of Resochin, a chloroquine product, to the U.S. The German drugmaker said that it is seeking an emergency use authorization for the drug in the U.S., where it is not approved. Health care providers in countries like China and France have been using chloroquine-based therapies to treat COVID-19 patients as there are no proven treatments for the disease.
At a Thursday press briefing, President Donald Trump said that he had directed the Food and Drug Administration to speed up trials of various drugs — including chloroquine — an action which he said could be a potential "game-changer" in fighting the disease.
"Nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus," Trump said at the White House briefing. "Now, a drug called chloroquine — and some people would add to it 'hydroxy,' Hydroxychloroquine — So Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine. Now, this is a common malaria drug. It is also a drug used for strong arthritis ... But it is known as a malaria drug, and it's been around for a long time and it's very powerful."
The president also cautioned, "When you go with a brand-new drug, you don't know that that's going to happen" but that the anti-malarial has shown "very, very encouraging early results. And we're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately."
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn explained that while chloroquine has been approved to treat other conditions, the agency wants to get more information about its efficacy against the coronavirus.
For now, "we're looking at drugs that are already approved for other indications; so they're already approved, as the President said, for other diseases," Hahn explained at the briefing.
"As an example, many Americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug, chloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug," Hahn explained. "It's already approved — as the President said — for the treatment of malaria, as well as an arthritis condition" but officials wants to get more information in the form of "a large, pragmatic clinical trial."
According to numbers aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, the United States has over 14,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Friday morning and has seen over 205 resulting deaths. The same data show that there are 246,000 confirmed cases of the virus globally.
3 million? A start. Now what’s the availability of Z-packs?
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As it always has in the past, humankind will ban together to defeat an existential enemy. Prayers will help.
“3 million? A start. Now what’s the availability of Z-packs?
The number thrown out in the last day or two was seven million tabs from Bayer and three million from Teva (Israeli Pharma)
Bravo Zulu Bayer!
lol...Probably less of those that the drug!
Teva, the Israeli generic drug maker, has also pitched in.
There are decent people in this world; the Schumers, Pelosis and Dementia Joe Biden are in the minority, but seems like there are more of them bc they are just loud.
Nice of Bayer to do so and it will get us started in the right direction. However, I am of the opinion that the government should start a production ramp up by ordering the delivery of enough of this drug to:
1) provide 30 day supply for all medical personnel (doctors through EMTs, dentists, specialists, orderlies, food service, receptionist etc. Basically all hospital and doctor office personnel.
2) provide a 30 day supply for all police and fire personnel
3) provide a 30 day supply for all military
Then issue out the first 30 days supply to the states for distribution to the above personnel. If states charge for the meds, they can only charge at the cost rate, plus shipping, plus 10% for handling. when manufactures ramp up to meet this initial demand, this will leave additional capacity after the first wave of purchase.
Create an electronic market place for US citizens to direct purchase of meds using the above pricing model and allow the manufacture to add 10% for profit. A fixed price customer meet manufacture type page.
Once a week Drug
The US government will just store them in their underground facilities for use by the elite. They won’t let the unwashed masses have them because they are “not verified” for this use.
Gotta say, for all those who aren’t convinced this drug will help, Bayer is definitely throwing its reputation - and money - behind their belief that it will.
Lab studies suggest it could be used for Covid19 prophylaxis too, but dosage for that isn't known. Geographic mismatch of malaria and Covid19 suggests malaria dosage might work. Researchers with access to the existing decent data sets on this (S. Korea, Singapore, Taiwan perhaps) should check their data to see if exposed citizens, who coincidentally were on malaria prophylaxis, were protected. That might prove prophylaxis works, and at what dosage, without the delay of a prospective trial if data including exposed patients prior meds exists. Safety of that dose is well established. Prove it works and have enough drug and the epidemic ends stat.
YES!...........Search available data for MALARIA patients and FORMER MALARIA PATIENTS who have or have not contracted the COVID-19! Compare the numbers! Great Idea!..................
Weird since the president and the government have taken such a beating over “delayed or late response” to the threat, why are the pills being provided NOW - at the end of the third month - if it works so good? Someone didn’t KNOW earlier that it would work on the virus? Just discovered it?
The Chinese were using it and it took this long for them to release their findings to the rest of us................
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