IRISH MEDICAL professionals have been warned about a drug previously hailed by Donald Trump as a potential miracle cure for coronavirus.
According to a report from The Irish Times, a safety notice has been published by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi in relation to the use of its drug hydroxychloroquine.
Originally developed in the 1950s as a drug to treat malaria lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and some skin conditions, hydroxychloroquine was cited by the US President as a possible treatment for the virus.
It followed the publication of a small French study that found a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was effective in treating Chinese COVID-19 patients.
The trial has since come in for intense scrutiny, with critics claiming it failed to meet the necessary standard criteria used in normal clinical trials.
Now Sanofi has issued a warning, with the approval of Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority, highlighting a recent increase in the number serious and life-threatening cardiac issues experienced by patients given hydroxychloroquine, often in combination with other drugs like azithromycin.
Sanofi is urging doctors to exercise extreme caution in prescribing the drug to COVID-19 patients, particularly anyone with heart issues, after recording a number of sudden deaths associated with the treatment.
Sanodi warned hydroxychloroquine “has no marketing authorisation for the management of Covid-19 anywhere in the world and, therefore, prescription of hydroxychloroquine for this purpose, outside the context of a clinical trial, is off-label [a medicine for a condition other that what it is licensed for]”.
They added “To date, there is insufficient clinical evidence to draw any conclusion over the clinical efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine in the management of Covid-19, whether it is used as a single agent or in combination with any other medicines such as azithromycin.”
Back in April, Gary Lenius and his wife Wanda, both in their 60s, took chloroquine phosphate, confusing it with hydroxychloroquine, after the President's remarks.
Gary died and Wanda was left in critical condition after drinking the chemical.
