Trump focuses attention on possible coronavirus treatments

President Donald Trump focused attention on possible treatments for new coronavirus on Thursday, citing potential use of a drug long used to treat malaria and some or approaches still in testing.

At a White House news conference, Trump and Food and Drug ministration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn cited malaria drug chloroquine, along with remdesivir, an experimental antiviral from Gile Sciences, and possibly using plasma from survivors of COVID-19, disease new virus causes.

Those treatments are among several being tested that might ease symptoms but do t stop virus from spreing.

Also on Thursday, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it was working with U.S. government to start a study of Actemra, a drug used w for rheumatoid arthritis and some or conditions, against coronavirus.

"We're looking at drugs that are alrey approved for or indications" as a potential bridge or stopgap, Hahn said, while also doing rigorous studies to see if drugs truly make a difference versus usual care, and if y are safe when used for a new purpose.

“We want to make sure this is done well and right,” he said.

drug is specifically approved w for treating COVID-19.

Chloroquine and a similar drug — hydroxychloroquine, sold as Plaquenil by French drugmaker Safi and in generic form — are available w and can be used off-label in United States. y may interfere with coronavirus being able to enter cells, and some scientists have reported possible encouraging signs in test-tube and or small studies.

German drugmaker Bayer has said it would donate 3 million tablets of its chloroquine drug, Resochin, for use against coronavirus. That drug was never approved in U.S., so Bayer is working with federal ncies to get an emergency-use authorization.

Chloroquine and remdesivir are among drugs World Health Organization said would be tried in a five-part international study anunced Wednesday.

Alrey approved drugs are tempting for doctors to use off label, but formal studies are needed to see if y truly work for a new purpose or disease, said Dr. Ross McKinney Jr., chief scientific officer for Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents about 400 major teaching hospitals across country.

Chloroquine may look promising in a test tube, but “I'm skeptical it will be effective” in patients, he said Thursday in a call with reporters.

Remdesivir interferes with virus reproduction and has shown some promise in lab and animal studies against or coronaviruses that cause similar diseases, MERS and SARS.

It's being tested in at least five separate experiments, and Gile also has given it to several hundred severely ill patients in U.S, Europe and Japan under "compassionate use" provisions. That includes three of first dozen COVID-19 patients in United States. y recovered, but it's impossible to kw wher y would have anyway without drug.

On a podcast Wednesday with a medical journal editor, National Institutes of Health's Dr. Anthony Fauci said China h enrolled several hundred people in its two remdesivir studies but is having trouble recruiting more because many patients just want drug and are unwilling to take a chance on being randomly assigned to a comparison group that just gets usual care.

It would be great if an independent monitoring board could look at results so far and see if re are signs of safety or effectiveness, Fauci said.

"We desperately need data" on this and or drugs being tested in rigorous scientific studies, Fauci said. "We've got to be able to determine if y work and if y're safe."

Apart from studies in China, Fauci's ncy is running a

Remdesivir "does look like it could be promising," said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. In animal tests, it was "quite effective at preventing infection" and reducing severity of illness and dam to lungs when given early eugh in course of illness, he said.

"It interferes with enzyme that reproduces genetic material of virus" and acts at an earlier step than protease inhibitors such as lopinavir and ritonavir, which are used w to treat HIV and also are being tested against new coronavirus, Kuritzkes explained.

HIV drugs gave disappointing results, failing to shorten illness in a study of 199 severely ill hospitalized patients in China, scientists from that country reported Wednesday in New England Journal of Medicine.

Some or studies testing HIV drug combo are still underway.

Roche drug, Actemra, is used w for rheumatoid arthritis and some or conditions. It targets interleukin-6, which plays a role in inflammation. Roche's U.S. subsidiary, Genentech, said Thursday that it was working with FDA to start a 330-patient study on hospitalized COVID-19 patients in April.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals says it will lanch a study of Kevzara, its rheumatoid arthritis drug that also targets interleukin-6, against coronavirus.

A Japanese company, Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, says tests suggest its drug favipiravir, used to treat flu in Japan, shows promise against coronavirus, though large studies of that have been published yet.

Or companies are developing moclonal antibodies, proteins that specifically fight coronavirus. Antibodies or combinations of m were tried against Ebola, and doctors think a similar approach may help against new virus.

Finally, some doctors have urged collecting plasma from people who have survived COVID-19, because y should have me natural antibodies to virus that could be given to people to help ir immune systems fight it off.