Washington| US President Trump has been advocating the use of anti-malaria medicine as a treatment of the corona virus COVID-19. While the medical fraternity seems to be divided on the issue and the doctors are still not sure, whether this should be considered as the cure of COVID-19, as the tests have not been done so for for the success of the drug as a cure against the corona virus, the President has day in and day out suggested to try hydroxychloroquine with all of the enthusiasm of a real estate developer.
Just like a businessman, he makes a passing reference to the engulfed danger by repeating a same statement five times in upper throat “What you have to loose”. With this, while the international media is considering this medicine as a miracle cure for the virus that has paralysed the world currently, an international debate has emerged among the researchers and the medical fraternity whether to try a medicine for the treatment even when the conclusive scientific studies have not taken place.
While after few tests, Swedish doctors have stopped using the drug as a treatment of COVID-19, with the statement that the article published in favor of the hydroxychloroquine does not go with the scientific standard, US President Trump has been continuously favoring the drug.
There is a very acute reason as why US President Trump is pressing against the usage of the hydroxychloroquine as a remedy to fight against the novel virus. If hydroxychloroquine becomes an acceptable treatment, many pharmaceutical companies, which manufacture the drug will gain huge profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.
- Sanofi produces Plaquenil, the brand-name form of hydroxychloroquine, the New York Times reported.
- Trump’s three family trusts have investments in a Dodge & Cox mutual fund, with Sanofi as the largest holding, according to the Times.
- Forbes estimates the value of Trump’s Sanofi holdings to be less than $3,000; for context, Forbes estimates Trump’s total net worth at $2.1 billion
- Billionaire Ken Fisher, a major Republican donor (including to Trump), is one of Sanofi’s largest shareholders, while Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross used to run a fund that invested in Sanofi, the Times reported.
- Trump in recent weeks has promoted the drug as coronavirus has swept through America, but hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness against COVID-19 has not been conclusively proven in scientific studies.
- Hydroxychloroquine, the Washington Post reported Monday, has serious side effects, including a possible risk of irregular heartbeats, when COVID-19 is causing a heart infection in some of the most seriously ill patients.
Surprising fact: The French organization that published a positive study on hydroxychloroquine cited by Trump’s allies walked back the findings Friday, saying it does not meet their “expected standard.”
