EU says no proof that anti-malaria drug touted by Trump is effective against coronavirus

The European Commission is pushing back against President Trump’s claims that an anti-malaria drug could be a “game-changer” in the race to find a cure for the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

A spokesperson for the commission said Tuesday that anti-malaria drugs including hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are both being tested as possible drugs against COVID-19, have shown no evidence of a cure against the virus.

Critics of the drug, including a host of science and medical professionals, have also cautioned against the use of the drug while clinical trials are still underway.

“The efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 patients has to date not been proved,” a spokesman for the European Commission told Reuters, citing the European Medicine Agency.

The Trump administration last week added hydroxychloroquine to a list of protected medical resources in the U.S. to prevent price gouging and hoarding.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government has banned the commercial export of the drug citing “the protection and medical supply of the Hungarian population is now a priority.” The country claims it is one of the top exporters of the ingredient.

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are FDA-approved for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and have been used to treat coronavirus patients in Belgium, China and South Korea. U.S. medical centers have increasingly added hydroxychloroquine off-label to their treatment protocols in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, while clinical trials in New York are underway.

The FDA on Sunday issued an emergency-use authorization for chloroquine and its next-generation version, hydroxychloroquine, as treatments for the novel coronavirus.

Initial trials of the drug have shown some positive results, despite criticism. A small study in France of 80 people revealed that four out of five who received the drug had “favourable” outcomes, France24 reported. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal.

French microbiologist Didier Raoult, head of the infectious diseases department of La Timone hospital in Marseille, claimed in an earlier report that the virus disappeared in 18 of 24 patients who received a solution of both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.