On Tuesday, reports Politico.eu, the country’s public health agency advised against using hydroxychloroquine outside of clinical trials. Shortly after that, the national medicines regulator suspended its use in clinical trials.
“Whether [in doctors offices] in the cities or in the hospital, this … should not be prescribed for patients with COVID-19,” the ministry said in a statement.
The move comes just two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) said safety concerns had prompted it to suspend the use of the drug in a global trial, and almost a week after The Lancet published the results of a worldwide observational study that cast doubt on the benefit of hydroxychloroquine and another malaria drug, chloroquine, in treating COVID-19 patients.
The study used data from 671 hospitals in six continents. Included were patients hospitalized between Dec 20, 2019, and April 14, 2020, The study was unable to confirm a benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19. Each of these drug regimens was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias when used for the treatment of COVID-19.
Hydroxychloroquine is usually prescribed for the treatment of Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, but US President Donald Trump and others have touted it as a possible treatment for Covid-19, according to the France24. Quoted in France24, Dr. Mandeep Mehra, a study leader and heart specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said, “not only is there no benefit, but we saw a very consistent signal of harm.”
