As more and more studies show that the very affordable quinine-based drug hydroxichloroquine helps to treat patients with the Wuhan-Coronavirus, President Trump urges the FDA to act now to give Americans access to this useful option.
While the drug has reportedly saved the lives of numerous people, including a Democratic Michigan state legislatior who publicly praised President Trump for making the existence of the drug known, the FDA did not renew the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine in June.
The stated reasons were lack of proof that the drug helps against Covid (despite numerous reports and studies confirming just that), as well as reports of complications, when the drug was administered in combination with the antibiotic Azithromycin, also known as Z-Pac. However, the complications are exactly the complications listed in the insert for Azithromycin (which include severe to fatal liver, skin and heart complications), for which an FDA warning regarding these complications has existed for a while. Rejecting a different drug based on exactly these complications occurring when administered together with Z-pac, which is known to cause them, is like requiring consumers of orange juice to be at least 21, because orange juice mixed with vodka has intoxicating effects.
It is important to know that hydroxychloroquine is so cheap, that there is not a lot of profit to be made from it, while proprietary antivirals have enormous profit margins. According to Wikipedia, the treatment cost to a patient using and paying full price for hydroxychloroquine is abot $25 per month as of 2020, while a five day treatment with Redemsivir is expected to cost about $ 2,340 (with a production cost of $0.93 per treatment).