The FDA has given emergency approval to anti-malaria drugs which could be used to treat coronavirus a week after Donald Trump lauded them as a ‘gift from God.’
In a statement published Sunday, the US Department of Health and Human Services detailed recent donations of medicine to a national stockpile – including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, both being investigated as potential COVID-19 treatments.
It said the FDA had allowed them ‘to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.’
Trump said last week that the two drugs could be a ‘gift from God,’ despite scientists warning against the dangers of overhyping unproven treatments.
It comes as the number infected by the contagion reached more than 142,000 on Sunday, including 2,509 deaths.