FDA revokes emergency use ruling for hydroxychloroquine

FDA revokes emergency use ruling for hydroxychloroquine

What the FDA's hydroxychloroquine change means for patients, politicians 

The FDA's decision yesterday to revoke its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 will likely have widespread implications in the country's Covid-19 response. The decision will impact everyone from patients who have put in a request for the drug to governors who scrambled to stockpile a supply, STAT's Nicholas Florko reports. He has more on the most pressing questions moving forward— including whether patients who still want to take the drug will be able to do so — in a new story here. 

Here's what else is going on with the pandemic: 

• A new effort dubbed Project Covalence is launching today to accelerate the speed — and lower the cost — of clinical trials to test Covid-19 treatments. A company called TrialSpark will work with researchers and companies developing Covid-19 therapies to find patients, help collect data, and test drugs remotely. 
• The pandemic has significantly disrupted clinical trials, which have seen a big decline in enrollment. And while some cancer centers put trials on hold, others have kept them running. “We have a job to do and we have to continue to do that job,” oncologist Ursula Matulonis of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute tells STAT's Elizabeth Cooney. Read more here. 
• A new study estimates one in five people worldwide have at least one health condition that may increase the risk of a severe Covid-19 case. And while not everyone with these conditions will get infected, the study estimates that 4% of the world's population would require hospitalization if infected.