TEVA - Are Chloroquine and Hydrochloroquine Approved to Treat COVID-19?
Despite what President Donald Trump said at a White House briefing on Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn't approved chloroquine and its less-potent-but-safer offspring, hydrochloroquine, to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
"Normally the FDA would take a long time to approve something like that, and it's -- it was approved very, very quickly and it's now approved, by prescription," Trump said.
Neither chloroquine nor hydrochloroquine are approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19, but they are approved to treat malaria -- and have been for decades. Hydrochloroquine is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis since it has anti-inflammatory properties.