The Russian government has authorized hospitals to treat coronavirus patients with the untested malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.
Thursday’s decree instructs Russia’s national medical cardiology research center to distribute 68,600 packs of hydroxychloroquine donated by a Shanghai pharmaceutical company to hospitals across Russia for free.
Russia has reported a total of 32,008 coronavirus cases, ranking it the 11th in the world, and 273 deaths as of Friday.
Reports of the drug’s potential to treat coronavirus cases were said to have caused a shortage of hydroxychloroquine in a majority of Moscow’s offline and online pharmacies.
Moscow’s health department last week issued a tender to buy 2.6 million rubles ($33,200) worth of hydroxychloroquine.
See the original Article here: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/04/17/russia-approves-unproven-malaria-drug-to-treat-coronavirus-a70025
See the Russian official authorisation to use hydroxychloroquine here: http://publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001202004160037#print
See the Moscow’s health department tender request for hydroxychloroquine here: https://zakupki.gov.ru/epz/order/notice/ea44/view/documents.html?regNumber=0873200009820002076