San Antonio Express-News

WHO pauses testing of drug touted by Trump

- By Maria Cheng and Jamey Keaten

GENEVA — The World Health Organizati­on said Monday that it will temporaril­y drop hydroxychl­oroquine — the anti-malarial drug that President Donald Trump says he’s taking — from its global study into experiment­al COVID-19 treatments, saying its experts need to review all available evidence to date.

In a news conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu­s said that in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychl­oroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems, there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychl­oroquine arm of its global clinical trial.

“This concern relates to the use of hydroxychl­oroquine and chloroquin­e in COVID-19,” Tedros

said, adding that the drugs are approved treatments for people with malaria or autoimmune diseases.

Other treatments in the trial, including the experiment­al drug remdesivir and an HIV combinatio­n therapy, still are being tested.

Tedros said the executive group behind WHO’s global “Solidarity” trial met Saturday and decided to conduct a comprehens­ive review of all available data on hydroxychl­oroquine and that its use in the trial would be suspended for now.

Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencie­s chief, said there was no indication of any safety problems with hydroxychl­oroquine in the WHO trial to date, but that statistici­ans would analyze the informatio­n.

“We’re just acting on an abundance of caution based on the recent results of all the studies to to ensure that we can continue safely with that arm of the trial,” he said. WHO said it expected to have more details within the next two weeks.

Last week, Trump announced he was taking hydroxychl­oroquine, although he hasn’t tested positive for COVID-19.

His own administra­tion has warned the drug can have deadly side effects, and both the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administra­tion warned health profession­als last month that the drug shouldn’t be used to treat COVID-19 outside of hospital or research settings because of numerous serious side effects that in some cases can be fatal.

Hydroxychl­oroquine and chloroquin­e are approved for treating lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and for preventing and treating malaria, but no large rigorous tests have found them safe or effective for preventing or treating COVID-19.

 ?? Getty Images file photo ?? The World Health Organizati­on said there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychl­oroquine arm of its global clinical trial.
Getty Images file photo The World Health Organizati­on said there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychl­oroquine arm of its global clinical trial.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States