As New York becomes the epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic, drug trials will now be starting in the state to test coronavirus or COVID-19 treatments.
This was after President Trump's statement
President Donald Trump has said that the FDA or the Food and Drug Administration has already approved one of the drugs that are involved in the clinical trials for the state of New York.
According to Forbes, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stated during a Sunday press briefing that they have now acquired 10,000 doses of Zithromax, 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine and 750,000 doses of chloroquine.
The main drug that was approved by the FDA for clinical trials was Chloroquine, which is an anti-malaria drug, A brand-name antibiotic called Zithromax was included, and another one named hydroxychloroquine that is used for lupus and arthritis. These drugs are all considered as potential treatments for coronavirus.
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine. The FDA has moved mountains - Thank You! Hopefully they will BOTH (H works better with A, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents)..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020
Other Doctors have said that the drugs are purely anecdotal
Cuomo has also said that President Trump was pretty much optimistic that these drugs could work while the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that "It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So you really can't make any definitive statement about it." Adding that the drug is basically just anecdotal.
Trump has also claimed that he had the chance to speak with Gov. Cuomo about the drug chloroquine preceding the DFA's green light for clinical trials. He said that Cuomo wanted to be the first one in testing all these treatments.
According to a French study that the President had promoted, it says that they have found some evidence earlier on that when combining hydroxychloroquine and Zithromax could be a very effective treatment for COVID-19 though, these results have not yet proven if the pair can actually treat it.
Dr. Stephen Hahn, a Food and Drug Administration commissioner had said that they might have the right drug but hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine might not actually be in the appropriate amount of dosage form as of the moment and it might do more harm than good.
WATCH: "The federal government should nationalize medical supply acquisition," says NY Gov. Cuomo. "We are competing against other states. ... Price gouging is a tremendous problem and it's only getting worse. There are masks that we were paying $.85 for, we're now paying $7." pic.twitter.com/1fkxq4zMKZ — MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 22, 2020
It was reported by the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on March 9 that Plaquenil which is another version of hydroxychloroquine helped kill the coronavirus in some laboratory experiments. This was first approved in 1995 to help treat malaria and used in patients with arthritis and lupus.
Scientists are now working and doing their best to search for an actual effective treatment for COVID-19, one that currently does not exist. The first clinical trial already began on Monday in Seattle after the first person to register in the trial had received the vaccine.
Some other additional treatments are now in different stages and phases of research, commercial release, and testing.
The list is updated here.
