Sigh. Yup Possibly more than months. I was starting to get optimistic again..... ok I still am despite Lucy continuing to get my hopes up that the ball is ready to kick. maybe it was an attempt to see what the market would do

Maybe available sooner for compassionate use though... my thought nothing ive read

teedubbya wrote:

Interesting. I dug a little into the research papers leading up to that. Seems like it inhibits viral replication.

victor809 wrote:

Yes, from what I understand it somehow blocks the playing of Barry White records, which decreases the odds that the viruses will reproduce. 🇨🇮

Pudding Mittens wrote:

By the way, both the drugs are already FDA approved and in widespread use, so largely it doesn't MATTER how long it takes for the feds to give their stamp of approval for this novel new USE of them. Your doc can prescribe them to you TODAY for coronavirus at his discretion as an "off-label" use.

Many, many docs will simply prescribe these two drugs for this "off-label" use on their own, and everyone will be cured in 6 days, and everyone will say "HOLY SCHITT!" which will cause far more docs to do it, and so on.... making fed approval largely irrelevant.

Fed approval will merely put this new novel use ON the label, that's about it. Or at least, that's what I've been told.
The only kind of fed approval that is "hard needed" is SAFETY approval, and both have had that for decades already. Efficacy proof for a novel use use is, last I heard, NOT needed to a doctor to do "off-label" uses of a drug as long as it's FDA-approved for something already.

Doctors have "off-label use" authority already, at their discretion. So while official approval may take months, mass curing may only take a few weeks.
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I don't know... (I literally don't know, I'm working off of spotty memory and a couple quick glances) but I think compassionate use is usually after things have gotten pretty bad, and they don't expect a patient to recover without trying the meds. I think those studies implied that using these drugs earlier on in the infection is important. In which case we will likely not see as much of a positive benefit when someone's already almost crapped out.

But I could be misremembering.

victor809 wrote:

If this French study which Puddin presented which displays the treatment, hydroxychloroquine and azithomycin combination displayed of the graph, if this holds true, many thousands will be following that green line rather than walking the green mile.
Cautiously optimistic.
But won't start the party until it's being implemented and proven to be the solution.

izonfire wrote:

I am assuming off-label prescriptions can put Dr's at risk for lawsuits

victor809 wrote:

Yep, which is why you can bet your ass that the doctors will require patients who want the treatment to sign lengthy and very detailed waivers and "hold harmless" agreements chock full of clearly-presented details of risks and such, which should overcome that problem.
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Pudding Mittens wrote:

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Having a closer look at the study, it turns out that "100% cure rate at 6 days" was only 6 patients. Still impressive, and it screams, "do a bigger study NOW!", but along with methodological flaws in the study due to its (understandable) hastiness, it's not as conclusive as it appeared at first glance.

Still, it might be the "real deal". Every person it's been tried on was virus-free within 6 days, and most within 5 days actually. Even though it's only 6 people, it's a rather startling result and very promising.

Must wait and see. The nice thing is, with only a 6-day duration, large-scale studies can be run quickly, in less than a week, plus setup time and data analysis time.

If it ends up being the "real deal" and enters widespread use, the really cool thing is that the azithromycin will not only work along with the anti-malarial drug to cure, but it will also simultaneously prevent secondary bacterial respiratory infections as a bonus. Curing while protecting from some kinds of complications, a real "one-two punch".
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Pudding Mittens wrote:

Meh. Hopefully but it also seems like wishful thinking.

Signed cynical mc Scrooge Butthole lol.

teedubbya wrote: