Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc (AMRX)

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https://nypost.com/2020/03/23/ny-will-turn-to-experimental-drugs-for-worst-coronavirus-cases-cuomo/

New York plans to start administering a pair of untested treatments to seriously ill coronavirus patients on a “compassionate care” basis, Gov. Cuomo said Monday.

“On the drug therapy, Tuesday we’re going to start the hydroxychloroquine with these Zithromax, that’s the drug combination that the president has been talking about,” Cuomo said during a news conference in Albany.

Cuomo said the Food and Drug Administration had also given the state permission to “proceed with an experimental drug” that “takes the plasma from a person who has been infected with the virus, processes the plasma and injects the antibodies into a person who is sick.”

“And there have been tests that show when a person is injected with the antibodies that then stimulates and promotes the immune system against that disease,” he said.

“We all believe thousands and thousands of people have had the virus and self resolved,” he said.

Cuomo also said experts in New York were developing “a serological drug, where you Cuomo also said experts in New York were developing “a serological drug, where you
test the antibodies of a person and see if they have the virus already.”

“If you knew that, you would know who is now immune to the virus and who you could send back to work, etc., so we’re also working on that.”

President Trump tweeted Saturday that the combination of hydroxychloroquine — an anti-malaria drug sold under the brand name Plaquenil — and Zithromax, the brand name for the antibiotic azithromycin, could be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine.”

Results of a small French study published last week showed that five of six people with the coronavirus who were treated with the two-drug cocktail tested negative on Day Three, and all tested negative on Day Six.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases, cautioned Saturday that the combination of drugs hadn’t been proven to work in clinical trials.


“It’s only a trial, it’s a trial for people who are in serious condition, but the New York State Department of Health has been working on this with some of New York’s best health care agencies and we think it shows promise and we’re going to be starting that this week.”