Update (1005ET): Minutes after this post was created, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned patients against taking two malaria medications that have been talked up by President Trump for Covid-19, unless carefully monitored in a hospital or as part of a clinical trial.
The FDA said it was issuing the warning after reports that patients taking the drugs, especially in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, had experienced heart issues.
“The FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with Covid-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin,” the health agency said in the warning.
Additionally, the cost of hydroxychloroquine ingredients is soaring.
Cadila Healthcare managing director Sharvil Patel said contracts with Chinese suppliers of ingredients for hydroxychloroquine production had not been honored as they were signed and suppliers were asking to pay multiple times more, Financial Times reports, citing an interview with the executive.
Anhui Haihua Chemical Technology, a Chinese supplier of hydroxychloroquine ingredient m-chloroaniline, confirmed the product's 375% price increase to about $26,840 a ton since the start of the year, FT says citing an identified official at the company
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The media's now saying it doesn't work. Is that actually true?
There sure has been a lot of recent press about how ineffective hydroxychloroquine is. That’s a real letdown given how promising it was thought to be.
But are the headlines true?
To answer that, Chris pulls up the original VA study all of the recent headlines are referencing. Well, it turns out, it’s based on quite poor “science”.
For example, it wasn’t randomized; by...