US halts hydroxychloroquine clinical trials for Covid-19 patients

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped its clinical trial of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine after findings showed that the treatment provides no benefit to coronavirus patients. The decision to end the trial comes after the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use of the drug for Covid-19 on Monday and the World Health Organization dropped the study on Wednesday.

There are no FDA-approved drugs to treat the coronavirus, which as of Sunday has infected more than 8.6 million people and killed more than 400,000, according to data from John Hopkins University. “On Friday it was determined that while there was no harm, the study drug was very unlikely to be beneficial to hospitalized patients with Covid-19,” read the NIH statement released on Saturday.

Moreover, the FDA has also come to the conclusion that the drug is “unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus” and gave a warning of its side effects including serious heart rhythm problems. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and rheumatoid conditions like arthritis.

Trump promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to fight Covid-19

The United States President Donald Trump has said multiple times that the drug has the potential to combat Covid-19 while the White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said that after discussing evidence for and against it both came to the conclusion of the “potential benefit from treatment outweigh the relative risk.”