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.
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.” – READ MORE
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