BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Industry to boost supply of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine despite limited data in COVID-19

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March 20, 2020 11:09 PM UTC
Updated on Mar 25, 2020 at 10:48 PM UTC

Novartis and Teva join a growing list of pharmas with plans to ramp up supply of antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in the U.S. for COVID-19 despite sparse clinical data supporting the drug's efficacy in the indication.

Chloroquine and its more tolerable derivative, hydroxychloroquine, have gained attention in light of President Donald Trump's statements during a March 19 press briefing, in which he called for widespread use of unapproved drugs under compassionate use and expressed great optimism for the antimalarials as treatment for COVID-19 (see "FDA Urged to Follow Science")...