The Indian government has banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, the decades-old malaria drug that was touted by President Trump as a possible weapon in the fight against Covid-19, but has been in short supply.
In a notice posted Wednesday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade prohibited the medicine and any formulations from being shipped outside of the country, except for companies that must fulfill existing contracts and on humanitarian grounds that would have to be approved on a case-by-case basis by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The move comes amid heightened speculation over the extent to which the drug can be effective in combating the novel coronavirus, since clinical trials have not been conducted for use in Covid-19 patients. The drug, which is also approved to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, is among four medicines that will be the focus of a large study announced last week by the World Health Organization.
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With the HC/AZ combo being rushed into “testing” in NY, will anybody, by any chance, be tracking Long QT arrhythmias? Asking for a friend.
Hi Bruce
I have to hunt around because I’ve seen that mentioned.
For now, I found this..
https://www.dicardiology.com/article/covid-19-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-brings-prolonged-qt-arrhythmia-issues
Hope you’re all safe,
ed at pharmalot
This decades old drug was handed out to travelers going to countries with potential malaria without regard for any side effects. Now that we are in dire need of the drug, which heretofore has not be made in the U.S., bureauratic NIH doctors are limiting use of this drug with extreme warnings it has not been tested. What about all the highly tested and FDA approved drugs we later find out are causing cancer and other medical conditions….where was the safety in protecting users on these approved drugs? It’s a big pharma/leftist bureauratic hold-up for those in fear of blame over cure. Go Trump…the red-tape destroyer and defender of the people.
Chloroquine’s efficacy is unclear.
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma-asia/top-covid-19-aspirants-chloroquine-abbvie-s-kaletra-and-a-flu-drug-disappoint-clinical
“Over the past few days, state pharmacy boards in Texas, Ohio, Idaho, and Nevada began restricting who can be prescribed the drugs, after reports of some doctors prescribing the drugs for themselves and their families.”
When doctors start behaving like this, we may be relaively certain that the drug is useful and with acceptable side effects.
The risks are extremely scary. We’re talking brain damage here. See work done by Remington Nevin. Eg.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-05384-0_20
Within the post, our scribe again mentions that the Import Alert for some IPCA facilities has been lifted. May I quote the President: “We don’t want the cure to be worse than the disease.” (Or misquote, if you prefer …)
I will assume US-FDA made “A risk based assessment” or they will say that. (Or perhaps it was based on political risk, at least a bit?)