The Association of American Surgeons & Physicians has filed a lawsuit against the FDA, HHS, the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority, two if its sub-agencies and several “lead officers” of these government agencies for interfering with patients’ access to the drug hydroxychloroquine.
Hydroxychloroquine, along with an antibiotic called Azithromycin and the vitamin Zinc have been shown to be effective in the treatment of the coronavirus.
The AASP has been pleading with governors of various states to make access to these drugs easier for months but has been met with stiff resistance.
Hydroxychloroquine is a relatively inexpensive, over-the-counter medicine that has been available for more than 60 years.
The AASP accuses the FDA of engaging in “irrational interference” in patients having “timely access” to the drug. Despite the fact that large quantities of the medicine were donated to the federal government by drug maker Novartis, the FDA issued an “Emergency Use Authorization” that barred hydroxychloroquine from being administered except in the case of “already-hospitalized patients for whom clinical trials are unavailable.”
“Through a biased, unlawful process…FDA officials from prior administrations acted contrary to the wishes of President Donald Trump, by arbitrarily limiting use of HCQ from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to prescribe to adolescent and adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible,” the lawsuit states.
Ever since President Trump touted hydroxychloroquine as being a promising treatment for covid19 earlier this year, there has been a concerted effort to downplay and even misrepresent the drug’s effectiveness against the disease.
A major study was published in The Lancet last month that showed the drug to not be effective in treating covid and even harmful to some patients. That study was retracted soon after however after it was shown the data on which the study’s findings were based was false.
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