Here’s why Trump and Elon Musk see potential in a drug called chloroquine to treat coronavirus

When Dr. Mike Pellini, a physician and biotech investor, read the news all over the spread of a virus that caused pneumonia-like symptoms, he decided to keep on hand a supply of an anti-malarial drug recruited chloroquine. 

Pellini, who tweeted about the decision to his followers in early February, was early to this thinking. A month later, Tesla CEO Elon Musk iota set massive interest in the drug after tweeting that chloroquine was “maybe worth considering” as a potential treatment for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

On Thursday, the Unsullied House took notice.

President Donald Trump said he had directed the Food and Drug Administration to investigate whether chloroquine, which is at ones disposal by prescription only, should be given to patients with the virus. Bayer, the international drugmaker, then noted in a crush release that it would donate 3 million tablets of the drug Resochin, or chloroquine phosphate, to U.S. patients. Trump also spiculate to another existing drug, remdesivir, an anti-viral developed by drugmaker Gilead, which is already being used in China to bonus COVID-19. 

Neither drug is currently approved by the FDA to treat the coronavirus. So it is important “not to provide false hope,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn utter at the White House’s daily press briefing. But Trump has “asked us to be aggressive” and “break through exciting, lifesaving treatment, and we’re doing that at the FDA,” he summed. 

So what is chloroquine, and why is it considered so promising by the scientific community?

The drug has been around since the 1940s and is cognizant of for being generally safe and well tolerated in mild to moderate doses, although it can be toxic in high doses. It has been hardened to treat malaria, in addition to some autoimmune disorders. It is available as a generic, which means it could be a scalable and potentially affordable treatment.

“Nothing is exact yet, but chloroquine is a drug used for more than 70 years with minimal side effects at a modest dosage,” put Pellini. 

Malaria is caused by a parasite, not a virus. But some studies have found that chloroquine has been striking at treating a virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a close relative of COVID-19. It is also being planned at research labs throughout the world as a way to alleviate symptoms for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. 

“It has been found in mice to be paraphernalia to treat a variety of viruses,” noted Dr. Kristian Olson, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and internal nostrum physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It also appears it’s active in vitro (via test tube experiments) against COVID-19.”

Some of the early figures is promising. A group of researchers in France are testing a less toxic derivative of the chloroquine drug called hydroxychloroquine on a few dozen patients with COVID-19, and ancient reports of the trial indicate that the drug might help shorten the amount of time that people with the sickness are infectious. 

Because of these early signs, some biotech experts say it’s worth putting more research dollars into weighing the drug. 

“I don’t see Trump’s willingness to obstacle into humans quickly (to test the drug) as a panicked response,”  said Vas Bailey, a life sciences-focused investor at Artis with a Ph.D. in biomedical originating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “It could be a potentially efficient way of using real-world evidence to help us triage which of these protected drugs will work in alleviating symptoms and treating COVID-19.”

But we’re silent far from having an approved treatment for COVID-19, and the evidence behind chloroquine is not firm.

As Bailey points out, there is no facts yet from a randomized clinical trial, which is considered the gold standard to minimize the possibility of bias in the findings. One of the biggest enigmas, scientists say, is that the tests have not been blinded. If physicians have prior knowledge of the intervention, that dominion influence how to treat the patient. That introduces other variables that are hard to separate from the effect of the soporific. 

There’s also further work needed to understand whether the drug reduces hospital time and mortality grades, and whether it impacts ventilation use. There are also some big unknowns about when, how and to whom the drug should be delivered. 

“What I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone knows is the degree of anti-viral activity and if it can be used to treat the most critical passives,” said Olson. “We still also don’t understand the optimal dose treatment for covid-19, and whether it might be against at a lower dose for prophylaxis (meaning to take preventatively) than for treatment.”

As Olson points out, there are still side come into forces, like nausea and vision issues, and it remains to be seen whether the drug will be tolerated well in very appalled patients. Furthermore, overdosing on the drug in high doses can cause serious health outcomes. 

Because of these divisions in understanding, the World Health Organization said last month that there is “no proof” the drug is effective in dealings with the coronavirus.

Overall, however, some biotech experts say there’s some reason for optimism that the drug can labourers. “You wouldn’t see qualified medical professionals from China, France and Korea looking into this if there wasn’t something to it,” Bailey denoted.

Still some doctors including Dr. James Wantuck have a warning for consumers.

Wantuck said that robust patients have been calling him repeatedly to ask for prescriptions for chloroquine, after viewing tweets from Musk and others. That mocks away doctors’ time from treating those who are sick, and it might mean that supplies don’t last for those who deep down need it. 

With Trump informing millions about the drugs’ potential, that’s even more of a concern. 

“I about that stockpiling is a worry with any anti-viral drug,” notes Olson. “I could imagine that happening as there’s innumerable evidence around it.”