President Trump just announced that the Food and Drug Administration may soon be approving widespread medical use of an anti-malarial drug to treat COVID-19 patients in America.
The medication is chloroquine, and not only has it been tested through time, but it is relatively cheap.
As the number of cases in the U.S. have surpassed 10,000, Trump and his team have been working diligently to deregulate drug testing so we can help those infected and slow the spread of the virus.
Here's what Trump said, via Newsweek:
"A drug called chloroquine, and some people would add to it hydroxychloroquine... now this is a common malaria drug," Trump told reporters at a press conference. "The nice part is, it's been around for a long time, so we know that if things don't go as planned it's not going to kill anybody. When you go with a brand new drug, you don't know that that's going to happen. It's shown very very encouraging early results."
"We're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately, and that's where the FDA has been so great. They've gone through the approval process, it's been approved. And they took it down from many, many months to immediate. So we're going to be able to make that drug available by prescription or states," Trump said.
Some great news during a difficult time for all of us.
“Nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus,” Trump added.
In 2004 chloroquine was used to fight another coronavirus strain, now known as SARS.
The FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn was a bit more hesitant about the drugs use for coronavirus. He said the FDA has nut fully approved it for coronavirus treatment yet, but that it could be prescribed by doctors for "compassionate use" on people willing to try experimental treatment options.
Additional clinical trials would be necessary to confirm whether it will be a good treatment option for coronavirus.
Rest assured, Trump will do everything in his power to speed the process along as quickly as possible.