Teva donates potential coronavirus treatment to hospitals across the US

MARCH 20, 2020 10:23

As the coronavirus is spreading across the world, and the number of people infected is increasing everyday, there is an urgent need to find treatments against COVID-19 that could reduce complications and improve recovery. Recently, the Israeli Health Ministry has approved multiple experiment treatments, and companies worldwide are attempting to determine what could be used to treat COVID-19.

As such, Israeli pharmaceutical company, Teva, has announced that they will donate more than 6 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets through wholesalers to hospitals across the United States, from March 31. Over 10 million tablets are expected to be shipped within a month.

The tablets are approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of malaria, lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The tablets are currently under investigation to determine their efficacy against the coronavirus and US government officials have asked for the immediate availability and use.

“We are committed to helping to supply as many tablets as possible as demand for this treatment accelerates at no cost,” said Brendan O’Grady, Teva Executive Vice President, North America Commercial in a statement.

“Immediately upon learning of the potential benefit of hyroxychloroquine, Teva began to assess supply and to urgently acquire additional ingredients to make more product while arranging for all of what we had to be distributed immediately,” he added.

Teva is also reviewing its other products to determine if some could also be of use against the coronavirus.