US Stockpiles 30Mln Pills Potentially Helpful Against COVID-19 - Trump

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2020) The United States has amassed in national reserves about 30 million of anti-malaria drug that can potentially be used as a coronavirus cure, President Donald Trump told reporters.

"Our national stockpile is now equipped with nearly 30 million hydroxychloroquine pills. We distribute them by the millions," Trump said during a White House briefing.

He has repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine, widely used to treat malaria, as a therapeutics against coronavirus, though its effects are yet to be scientifically proven.

On Wednesday, Trump publicly thanked India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi for lifting export restrictions on the drug.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters that hydroxychloroquine is undergoing clinical trials as a COVID-19 drug, but is available for "off-label" use.

"Any physician in consultation with their patient and back and forth can make the decision to use the drug," he said. "So we have two things that are simultaneously going on. We are having actual formal clinical trials and the off-label use."

The United States as of Wednesday was leading the world in number of confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 429,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.