Difference between revisions of "Coronavirus treatments"
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Revision as of 02:26, March 19, 2020
Coronavirus treatments are being discussed without any proof yet of effectiveness.
The FDA sharply impedes the development of new medications in the United States, while communist China allows more freedom in rapidly developing and using new treatments. But the FDA is not authorized to make decisions about the practice of medicine, and thus it is generally allowed for a physician to use an old medication for a new purpose if it has been previously approved without limitation by the FDA. This is known as "off-label" use of a drug.
As explained by the website for the National Institutes of Health:[1]
| “ | Off-label drug use involves prescribing medications for indications, or using a dosage or dosage form, that have not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Since the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the practice of medicine, OLDU has become common. It occurs in every specialty of medicine .... | ” |
An article in Nature suggests the potential for off-label use of hydroxychloroquine, which was used long ago for malaria and was first synthesized in 1946, to treat coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2):[2]
| “ | [O]ur results show that HCQ [Hydroxychloroquine] can efficiently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. In combination with its anti-inflammatory function, we predict that the drug has a good potential to combat the disease. | ” |