Politics Trump Owns Stock in Company that produces Hydroxycloroquine

Gilead's coronavirus drug flops in first trial - FT
by Reuters

April 23 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental coronavirus drug failed its first randomised clinical trial, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing draft documents published accidentally by the World Health Organization.

Trading in the shares of the company was halted after they fell 6%.

The Chinese trial showed the antiviral remdesivir did not improve patients' condition or reduce the pathogen's presence in the bloodstream, the report https://on.ft.com/2VumJIA said.

Researchers studied 237 patients, giving the drug to 158 and comparing their progress with the remaining 79. The drug also showed significant side effects in some, which meant 18 patients were taken off it, according to the Financial Times.

Interest in Gilead's drug had been high as there are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in extremely severe cases.

The company is testing the drug in multiple trials and highly anticipated trial results from a study involving 400 patients hospitalized with severe cases of the illness are expected later this month.

Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is being tried against COVID-19 because it is designed to disable the mechanism by which certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, make copies of themselves and potentially overwhelm their host's immune system.

https://news.trust.org/item/20200423162137-vgafb

 

Neither trial should be taken as evidence, positive or negative, as neither are complete.

The chinese trial never will be complete because they didn't get enough patients enrolled. It's been criticized for giving it to late stage patients, apparently that's not the time to use the drug. But we'll see. I think the Chicago trial is going to have actual results in the next couple of weeks.

barfo

 

FDA issues warnings on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine after deaths and poisonings reported

• The agency also said it became aware of reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” in patients with the virus who were treated with the malaria drugs.
• It said patients taking the drugs for approved reasons, including malaria or to treat autoimmune conditions like lupus, should continue taking their medicine as prescribed.

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers Friday against taking malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial setting after deaths and poisonings were reported.

The agency said patients taking the drugs for approved reasons, including malaria or to treat autoimmune conditions like lupus, should continue taking their medicine as prescribed.


The agency also said it became aware of reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” in patients with the virus who were treated with the malaria drugs, often in combination with antibiotic azithromycin, commonly known as a Z-Pak. It also warned physicians against prescribing the drugs to treat the coronavirus outside of a hospital.

“Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can cause abnormal heart rhythms such as QT interval prolongation and a dangerously rapid heart rate called ventricular tachycardia,” the agency wrote in the notice. “We will continue to investigate risks associated with the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19 and communicate publicly when we have more information.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/fda...ter-serious-poisoning-and-death-reported.html

 

That's an incredibly useless data point. She doesn't know whether she would have recovered better or worse without the drug. All we can say for sure is that it didn't kill her.

barfo