WASHINGTON (CN) — Nearly two months since the U.S. confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus, the White House said Thursday it is pushing to have a pre-existing antimalarial drug available broadly for treatment.
“It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody,” President Donald Trump said this morning, discussing hydroxychloroquine at a briefing by the White House task force.
Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and other members of the task force including immunologist and task force coordinator Deborah Birx, Trump said the drug would be available by prescription.
“I think it could be a game changer and maybe not,” he said. “But it could be, based on what I see, a game changer. I want every American to know we’re doing what we can.”
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn emphasized at the same press conference, however, that the drug is still in the clinical trial phase.
Trump meanwhile said the administration has been urging the Food and Drug Administration to slash red tape, pointing to the first clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine that got underway in Washington state this week.
A spokesperson for the FDA said Thursday that hydroxychloroquine has not yet been approved for use in individuals with COVID-19.
As far as other vaccines or antiviral drugs go, Hahn sought to quell concerns that the FDA may be rushing safety-review periods.
“We need to expand different therapeutic options,” he said, noting that the FDA has also ramped up its exploration of experimental drugs for compassionate use.
This will be helpful, the commissioner explained, because through compassionate care, researchers and developers can gather data that informs safety and efficacy for broader treatment of the population.
The antiviral drug remdesivir was also discussed. Trump called the drug “essentially approved,” prompting Hahn to issue another clarification from the dais.
Because Remdesivir is not originally intended for the novel coronavirus, Hahn said the process now is about determining the “right drug, the right dosage and the right time” to administer it to patients.
In the U.S., the number of confirmed cases now exceeds 9,400, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. For context, this time last week, that figure was closer to 1,600 confirmed cases. The case rate will continue to rise as testing becomes more prevalent and viable across the U.S. The U.S. death toll now hovers at 150, while China on Thursday reported its first day without any local transmission of the virus.
Vice President Pence, the leader of the White House task force, said Thursday that tests were being conducted by the tens of thousands across the U.S.
“State and private labs are now required by law to report all coronavirus testing directly to the CDC, which will give the American public and our research timely information,” Pence said.
When compared against other widely used models like the one developed by Johns Hopkins University, however, testing figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been unreliable or at times on a dayslong delay since the start of the U.S. outbreak.
