US company ran questioned study of Trump favored drug

US company ran questioned study of Trump favored drug

Panama will continue to ban the use of the drug hydroxychloroquine,  widely promoted by US President Donald Trump s for patients with Covid-19.

The dialectologist and member of the   Ministry of Health Advisory Committee for Coranavirus Javier Nieto said that the scientific evidence of the drug is inconclusive and debatable.

This week the World Health Organization resumed clinical trials with the drug, commonly used for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis,

On May 26, the Ministry withdrew hydroxychloroquine from the protocols for the care of patients with Covid-19, based on the results of a study published by The Lancet journal. The study led the World Health Organization (WHO) to temporarily suspend the use of the drug in patients participating in its ” clinical trial, including  Panama.

The study, carried out by a US company, concluded that hydroxychloroquine did not show any benefit to those who have a Covid-19 infection, on the contrary, it could be fatal for the patient.

Based on what was published by The Lancet the research was the largest carried out on the use of the medicine and had taken into account 96,000 patients in 671 hospitals.

Discussion in the scientific community peaked this week when three of the study’s four authors retracted the article. This was reported by the British magazine itself. “We cannot continue to guarantee the veracity of the primary data sources,” the three authors told The Lancet, holding the fourth author responsible for the data that led to the investigation. The fourth author refuses to give direct access to the study database.

At the heart of the problem is Surgisphere, a small American company, unknown until recently, and which provided the data for the study. An investigation by The Guardian, published, determined that Surgisphere has hardly any employees and that some of those who appear as such have no scientific training.

At the helm of the company is Sapan Desai, a scientist who has been named in three lawsuits for scientific malpractice, and who appears as a co-author in both The Lancet study and another study in The New England Journal of Medicine on hydroxychloroquine.

After temporarily suspending the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients participating in the “Solidarity” clinical trial in late May, the WHO announced this week that it would resume studies.