Two days after India allowed the use of antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)- in the treatment of covid-19 in early stage, the US Food and Drug Administration has revoked emergency use authorization of HCQ and chloroquine (CQ) both calling them “ineffective” against coronavirus.

“Antimalarials are unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19 in the emergency situation,” the FDA said Monday and revoked the permission of using the controversial drugs in emergency situations.
The decision was taken following the request of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

The director of BARDA Gary Disbrow had asked FDA to revoke permission citing large scale clinical trial data results that revealed that the drug’s potential benefits for such use do not outweigh its known and potential risks.

“After reviewing new information from large randomised clinical trials the agency now believes that the suggested dosing regimens are unlikely to produce an antiviral effect," USFDA said.

The FDA said, “Earlier observations of decreased viral shedding with HCQ or CQ treatment have not been consistently replicated and recent data from a randomized controlled trial assessing probability of negative conversion showed no difference between HCQ and standard of care alone.”
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 3 found the HCQ was no better than a placebo in preventing infection of the coronavirus.

The US FDA had allowed the use of antimalarials in emergency in March. However, it had warned consumers a month later against taking the drugs to treat Covid-19 outside a hospital or formal clinical trial setting due to the risk of “serious heart rhythm problems” in some patients.

President Donald Trump has backed the drug several times and had said that he was taking it daily for prophylactic purposes.

India has approved the drug for prophylactic use and several doctors and other health staff are taking it in hope that it would offer prevention from the infection of highly contagious virus.