hydroxychloroquine

Promoted in April as the first large-scale drug study on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine to protect against COVID-19, the Detroit-based clinical trial has quietly been iced.

Henry Ford Health System officials told Bridge Michigan they could not find enough participants to continue studying whether the drug could help beat back the deadly pandemic.

Early treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in certain sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19 — and without heart-related side-effects, according to a new study published by Henry Ford Health System. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has withdrawn its emergency use authorization for the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, once seen by some — including President Trump — as a game-changing treatment for COVID-19 patients.

The decision, outlined in a 15-page document released Monday, addresses a small portion of the drug’s use. Specifically, it pulls back the availability of hydroxychloroquine sulfate, as well as chloroquine phosphate, from the Strategic National Stockpile for use among hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Thousands of people are being recruited to participate in southeast Michigan clinical trials — touted as among the largest in the country — to test the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in the battle against COVID-19.

But since a 3,000-person Detroit trial was announced April 2, an increasing number of reports have shed doubt not only on the drug’s effectiveness, but also its safety. Some warn of potentially deadly changes to the heart’s rhythm — an alarming side effect so widespread the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month warned against the use of hydroxychloroquine outside of a closely-monitored hospital setting or clinical trial.

Henry Ford Health System says it’s been using the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat severe cases of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.

Hydroxychloroquine recently gained a large amount of attention after President Donald Trump mentioned the anti-arthritis and anti-malaria drug in his March 20 press conference as being promising. Since then, there has been much discussion as to whether the drug is actually effective in treating COVID-19.