Katy Thomas. The American National Institutes of Health has reported that two clinical trials involving hydroxychloroquine have been stopped. The reason behind this is being told that the drug is not effective and the lack of people in the trial. However, US President Donald Trump is promoting this drug as a coronavirus drug.
An independent inspection board found that this drug does not appear to benefit hospitalized patients. After this, the agency stopped the trials. On the same day, NIH said that they are also closing their second trial, as there was a plan to include two thousand people in the study, but only 20 patients participated. The closure of both these trials is evidence that hydroxychloroquine did not live up to the promise of fighting coronavirus.
Think of another helpful treatment
Doctor William Schaffner, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says the drug did not work. I think one should keep this drug aside and think of effective treatments on the other.
Trump considers hydroxychloroquine as a game-changer and also consumes himself in hopes of avoiding coronavirus. Drugmakers have also donated millions of doses to the federal stockpile.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration withdrew permission to give hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to its hospitalized patients. The agency said that the drug was unlikely to be effective and had some risks.
Kovid 19 patients may have heart disease
When NIH was stating that they had not recognized safety in the trial of 500 patients, others found that hydroxychloroquine had a risk. The FDA has issued a warning that this drug may cause heart diseases in patients with severe COVID 19.
This scheduled trial was running the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. When this trial was stopped, more than 470 patients were enrolled. Through the study, an attempt was made to know whether this drug benefits hospitalized patients, the people who went to the emergency room, and the patients whose prospective patients are admitted to the hospital.
The second trial included hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.
The second trial looked at whether hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin could be prevented from hospitalizing the patient if they were given at the beginning of the disease. The study was done by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a subsidiary of NIH. The agency said in its statement that an attempt was made to fill the knowledge gap through this random and placebo-controlled trial.
The agency said that no safety problems were found in this as well. They found that a recent decision to withdraw FDA approval could reduce people's enthusiasm to participate in these drug studies. In addition, several large trials of hydroxychloroquine were also stopped.
Experts suspect hydroxychloroquine
Infectious Diseases Specialist at the University of Minnesota, Dr. David R. Ballware said that there is no surprise. It is becoming clear that this drug does not affect hospitalized patients. Whether or not there is any benefit in early treatment is not yet clear, but the role of hydroxychloroquine is increasingly suspected.
World Health Organization also closed trials
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that it was stopping a large hydroxychloroquine study, as evidence showed that the drug was not reducing mortality in hospitalized patients. After this, on Friday, a Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis said that it was stopping its clinical trial, as it could not recruit the required patients.
Many research is still going on
Some researchers are still studying whether hydroxychloroquine could previously be used to prevent disease onset or to protect people from the virus. After a trial earlier this month, it was found that hydroxychloroquine was not effective in protecting the infection after exposure to anyone.
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