5 ms·

This is old news by this time. As I commented on previous threads. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22534339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22534339

This is old news by this time. As I commented on previous threads. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22534339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22534339 Yes chloroquine has been shown effective in vitro (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0282-0). Yes hydroxichloroquine has been shown effective in vitro very recently as well (https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa237/5801998 https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid...). Yes both compounds are already actively being used and approved for use by Asian and EU countries against Covid19: Here are the Netherlands treatment guidelines (in Dutch): https://lci.rivm.nl/covid-19/bijlage/medicamenteuze-behandelopties https://lci.rivm.nl/covid-19/bijlage/medicamenteuze-behandel... Here are the Italy treatment guidelines (in Italian): http://www.simit.org/medias/1555-covid19-linee-guida-trattamento-01mar.pdf http://www.simit.org/medias/1555-covid19-linee-guida-trattam... How they found out about it: https://www.jqknews.com/news/388543-The_novel_coronavirus_pneumonia_has_short_term_curative_effect_on_the_treatment_of_new_crown_pneumonia.html https://www.jqknews.com/news/388543-The_novel_coronavirus_pn... Approval and recommendation of the chinese: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32075365-expert-consensus-on-chloroquine-phosphate-for-the-treatment-of-novel-coronavirus-pneumonia/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32075365-expert-consensus-on... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32074550-breakthrough-chloroquine-phosphate-has-shown-apparent-efficacy-in-treatment-of-covid-19-associated-pneumonia-in-clinical-studies/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32074550-breakthrough-chloro... I don't think there is much doubt left about it's efficiency at this stage. Hydroxichloroquine is much safer than chloroquine and it's just a 5 day course at pretty low dosage (2x400mg on day1 as a charge dose, then 2x200mg for 4 days). More importantly, the drug is readily available, mass producded and doesn't cost 300$+/box like lopinavir/ritonavir. This drug isn't also 100% experimental and probably in the 3 digits rangs like remdesivir. The only real issue is that with a lot of doctors using it, the temporary shortage of the drug could be troublesome for many Lupus patients around the world who depend on Plaquenil for their management.

vijayr02 7y ago
I just posted a story about a vaccine being found. Would be great to know from the experts in this area if the approach they describe in the article makes sense https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22565460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22565460
- Cantbekhan 7y ago
  I'm fairly certain finding the vaccine is really quite easy to develop and has been done by multiple companies small and large already. The main issue is to do the clinical trials and get it approved and mass produced in a timely fashion. These trials and the validation can take about a year. Here is the official list of currently being developed covid19 vaccines (all in pre-clinical stage) https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/novel-coronavirus-landscape-ncov.pdf?ua=1 https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/n...
  - vijayr02 7y ago
    Thanks for the quick reply. In the article I referenced, the company says they use a novel plant based method which allows mass production, and expect phase three clinical trials to be completed by November. The company, Medicago, is not on the list you provided. It also seems to be a Pentagon funded biotech company so trying to understand how credible this news may be (I'm sure there are many unscrupulous companies trying to claim a miracle cure at this point!)
  - m0zg 7y ago
    Yeah, a local hospital was approved for vaccine testing today. Timeline for completing the tests? 13 months.
    - usrusr 7y ago
      It makes sense that vaccines need more careful assessment before rollout than treatment pharmaceuticals. When the medical infrastructure has reached triage grade saturation, even coin toss treatment candidates could become rational if they can run in parallel to conventional treatment. Exposing the still healthy to a vaccine is an entirely different risk calculation. A reasonably opportunity to throw money at the problem would be to fund speculative production ramp-up for likely candidates ahead of approval, this should not be left to the invisible hand alone.
      - m0zg 7y ago
singularity2001 7y ago
Answering just so that I find your comment later sorry if there is a smarter way to save comments
- rpwverheij 7y ago
  click date / time saying "x days ago". click favorite.
ohbleek 7y ago
I remembered your comment today because we had a doctor call our pharmacy to order +1000 hydroxichloroquine tablets for everybody in his assisted living facility, requiring 12 tablets per patient for prophylactic use. Our Pharmacist in charge referred him to literature and informed him they would need an Rx for each patient even if we had that kind of supply, but overall this was not an appropriate practice without a full list of all medications that patients are currently taking. Anyway I thought you'd find this interesting.
shadowprofile77 7y ago
If you don't mind, would you mind sharing the source for the hydroxychloroquine dosages you mentioned? I clicked your links (understand Italian) and as far as my computer gave me, none of them worked, which was strange but maybe a problem with my browser.

vijayr02 7y ago

I just posted a story about a vaccine being found. Would be great to know from the experts in this area if the approach they describe in the article makes sense https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22565460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22565460

Cantbekhan 7y ago
I'm fairly certain finding the vaccine is really quite easy to develop and has been done by multiple companies small and large already. The main issue is to do the clinical trials and get it approved and mass produced in a timely fashion. These trials and the validation can take about a year. Here is the official list of currently being developed covid19 vaccines (all in pre-clinical stage) https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/novel-coronavirus-landscape-ncov.pdf?ua=1 https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/n...
- vijayr02 7y ago
  Thanks for the quick reply. In the article I referenced, the company says they use a novel plant based method which allows mass production, and expect phase three clinical trials to be completed by November. The company, Medicago, is not on the list you provided. It also seems to be a Pentagon funded biotech company so trying to understand how credible this news may be (I'm sure there are many unscrupulous companies trying to claim a miracle cure at this point!)
- m0zg 7y ago
  Yeah, a local hospital was approved for vaccine testing today. Timeline for completing the tests? 13 months.
  - usrusr 7y ago
    It makes sense that vaccines need more careful assessment before rollout than treatment pharmaceuticals. When the medical infrastructure has reached triage grade saturation, even coin toss treatment candidates could become rational if they can run in parallel to conventional treatment. Exposing the still healthy to a vaccine is an entirely different risk calculation. A reasonably opportunity to throw money at the problem would be to fund speculative production ramp-up for likely candidates ahead of approval, this should not be left to the invisible hand alone.
    - m0zg 7y ago

singularity2001 7y ago

Answering just so that I find your comment later sorry if there is a smarter way to save comments

rpwverheij 7y ago
click date / time saying "x days ago". click favorite.

ohbleek 7y ago

I remembered your comment today because we had a doctor call our pharmacy to order +1000 hydroxichloroquine tablets for everybody in his assisted living facility, requiring 12 tablets per patient for prophylactic use. Our Pharmacist in charge referred him to literature and informed him they would need an Rx for each patient even if we had that kind of supply, but overall this was not an appropriate practice without a full list of all medications that patients are currently taking. Anyway I thought you'd find this interesting.

shadowprofile77 7y ago

If you don't mind, would you mind sharing the source for the hydroxychloroquine dosages you mentioned? I clicked your links (understand Italian) and as far as my computer gave me, none of them worked, which was strange but maybe a problem with my browser.