Hydroxychloroquine and a related drug, chloroquine, are currently under evaluation in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. Also, there are few results suggested that Hydroxychloroquine is effective against COVID-19. Three pharma giants Novartis, Mylan and Teva Pharma announced that they will donate millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine to support the global COVID-19 pandemic response.
When supported for use in COVID-19 infected patients by regulatory authorities, Novartis intends to donate up to 130 million 200 mg doses by the end of May, including its current stock of 50 million 200 mg doses. The company is also exploring further scaling of capacity to increase supply and is committed to working with manufacturers around the world to meet global demand.
Mylan has restarted production of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets at its West Virginia manufacturing facility in the U.S. to meet the potential for increased demand resulting from potential effectiveness of the product in treating COVID-19. Mylan's hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of malaria, lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. Mylan expects to be in a position to begin supplying product by mid-April, and with the active pharmaceutical ingredient that we currently have available, will be able to ramp up manufacturing to provide 50 million tablets to potentially treat a total of more than 1.5 million patients.
Teva Pharmaceutical initiated immediate donation of more than 6 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets through wholesalers to hospitals across the U.S. to meet the urgent demand for the medicine as an investigational target to treat COVID-19.
