On the market in Oklahoma: a big stockpile of hydroxychloroquine.
The Oklahoma Division of Well being remains to be attempting to unload a stockpile of hydroxychloroquine — an antimalarial drug touted by former President Trump as a “miracle” treatment for Covid-19 regardless of a scarcity of proof that it successfully treats the illness — that it bought for $2 million final spring.
Mike Hunter, the state’s legal professional common, has been introduced on to help the well being division in promoting again the drug, Alex Gerszewski, a spokesman for Mr. Hunter, mentioned on Tuesday.
The state is making an attempt to promote the stockpile again to the corporate it bought it from, FFF Enterprises, a California-based well being care distributor, or to seek out one other purchaser, Mr. Gerszewski mentioned. The corporate didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Oklahoma has been attempting to unload the stockpile for months. In July, the state well being division told Information 9, a neighborhood tv information station, that it was “working to promote it.”
A spokesman for the well being division confirmed on Tuesday that the stockpile was nonetheless within the division’s possession however referred questions in regards to the tried return to the legal professional common’s workplace.
Early, seemingly promising outcomes, bolstered by political pressure, prompted the Meals and Drug Administration to grant hydroxychloroquine an emergency authorization to be used in very sick Covid-19 sufferers. Observe-up research, nonetheless, discovered the drug neither sped restoration nor prevented wholesome individuals from contracting the coronavirus or progressing to severe illness.
The F.D.A. revoked its emergency approval in June. The agency now warns that hydroxychloroquine could cause harmful abnormalities in coronary heart rhythm in coronavirus sufferers.
In April, Mr. Trump mentioned he would place thousands and thousands of hydroxychloroquine doses right into a federal stockpile to be used on Covid-19 sufferers. In Could, he said he had been taking it himself, regardless that he was not contaminated with the coronavirus.
When Mr. Trump contracted the virus in October, he acquired an antibody cocktail and remdesivir, an antiviral drug. Hydroxychloroquine was not talked about as a part of his therapy.
