Last week the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as treatments for COVID-19. The authorization allows the drugs to be donated to the Strategic National Stockpile and distributed as well as prescribed by doctors to hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients as appropriate. They could have been used off-label before the authorization, but this determination remove the SNS administrative barrier.
On Saturday the governor issued an executive order limiting hydroxychloroquine prescriptions to people that need it for treatment (e.g. Lupas or COVID) and clarified that it can’t be used for prophylaxis (prevention). Good idea.
The CDC has a web page that summarizes the trials underway including for Remdesivir, which is an investigational intravenous drug with broad antiviral activity that inhibits viral replication through premature termination of RNA transcription and has in-vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 and in-vitro and in-vivo activity against related coronaviruses. More information on trials can be found at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/.
