FDA Revokes Emergency Approval Trump-Promoted Drug Hydroxychloroquine As In ‘Ineffective’

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday revoked emergency approval of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, that the agency originally granted in late March, citing heart failure as a side effect and labeling it “ineffective.”

“Additionally, in light of ongoing serious cardiac adverse events and other serious side effects, the known and potential benefits of CQ and HCQ no longer outweigh the known and potential risks for the authorized use,” the FDA wrote in the Monday statement.

FDA also said the anti-malaria drugs could reduce the effectiveness of remdesivir, an HIV drug that has been used in coronavirus treatments as well.

President Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed the use of hydroxychloroquine and claimed he has been taking it as a preventive measure, criticized the FDA decision.

“I took it and I felt good about taking it. I don’t know if it had an impact, but it certainly didn’t hurt me,” Trump said on Monday.

Trump also criticized a recent National Institutes of Health study on the malaria drug’s  ineffectiveness that later became a basis for the FDA decision, dismissing it as a “phony study” and “Trump enemy statement.”

“If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape,” Trump said. “They were very old. Almost dead. It was a Trump enemy statement.”

The President of the United States is slamming a hydroxychloroquine study backed by his own government as “a Trump enemy statement” because it found that the drug had no benefits in treating coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/OwCN1UsJdp

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 19, 2020

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