India bans exports of drug touted by Trump as potential Covid-19 treatment #CoronavirusUpdates

India bans exports of drug touted by Trump as potential Covid-19 treatment #CoronavirusUpdates

The Indian government has banned exports of hydroxychloroquine, the decades-old malaria drug that was touted by President Trump as a possible weapon in the fight against Covid-19, but has been in short supply. In a notice posted Wednesday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade prohibited the medicine and any formulations from being shipped outside of the country, except for companies that must fulfill existing contracts and on humanitarian grounds that would have to be approved on a case-by-case basis by the Ministry of External Affairs. The move comes amid heightened speculation over the extent to which the drug can be effective in combating the novel coronavirus, since clinical trials have not been conducted for use in Covid-19 patients. The drug, which is also approved to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, is among four medicines that will be the focus of a large study announced last week by the World Health Organization. In recent weeks, the medicine was the subject of several medical papers suggesting a degree of effectiveness in Covid-19 patients, prompting doctors to write prescriptions and hospitals in the U.S. to place orders. Last Friday, after Trump talked up the drug, 1.5 million tablets were been ordered, but just 12% of orders were filled. Orders have jumped 2,196% since the pandemic was declared. Related: Hospital orders for old malaria drugs have spiked amid coronavirus pandemic Over the past few days, state pharmacy boards in Texas, Ohio, Idaho, and Nevada began restricting who can be prescribed the drugs, after reports of some doctors prescribing the drugs for themselves and their families. Consequently, shortages were reported by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, although four manufacturers have since pledged to produce millions of tablets. Among them are Mylan, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and the Sandoz unit of Novartis. Spokespeople for Mylan, Novartis and Teva wrote us that their companies produce hydroxylcholoroquine in U.S. facilities. http://videomarketingservices.net/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR0k7hsqw3CkcdTQ-d1_1-g https://nationalcoronaviruscleanup.blogspot.com/ https://nationalcoronaviruscleanup.wordpress.com/ https://nationalcoronaviruscleanup.tumblr.com/ https://medium.com/@nationalcoronaviruscleanup https://www.pinterest.com/nationalcoronaviruscleanup/ To fill the void, though, the Food and Drug Administration late last week also took the unusual step of lifting an import ban that was placed in 2015 on Ipca Laboratories, an Indian drug maker that was cited for poor manufacturing practices at three facilities, so that the company could export hydroxychloroquine and the required active pharmaceutical ingredients to make the medicine. For now, the company does not expect to be able to export. “As the things stand today, we can not export the API hydroxychloroquine sulphate, as well as it’s formulations, unless exemptions are given on a case to case basis on humanitarian grounds,” Harish Kamath, the IPCA corporate counsel wrote us #NationalCoronavirusCleanup #CoronavirusNews #Covid-19Updates
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