Ledger
Research record workbench
More
NarrativesContentionsSourcesCorrectionsReportExportDocuments
Back to timeline
Verified
Policy

FDA grants, then revokes, hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine EUA

The FDA under Commissioner Stephen Hahn issued an emergency use authorization for chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine on March 28, 2020 — amid heavy public promotion by President Trump — then revoked it June 15, 2020, finding the drugs unlikely to be effective and that benefits no longer outweighed cardiac and other risks. HHS IG and House investigations later examined alleged White House pressure around the EUA; FDA framed both decisions as science-driven, the revocation following the UK RECOVERY trial's no-benefit results.

Linked sources

FDA revokes emergency use authorization for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (June 15, 2020)
Tier 1 · other · FDA news release; quotes March 28, 2020 grant date

Related contentions

Public-health policy

Policy history documented; scientific consensus evolved; political dispute remains.

Early treatment and repurposed drugs: dismissed or properly tested?

Unresolved. The efficacy question for ivermectin in COVID-19 is largely settled against benefit in the major RCTs, but the dispute over the tone and legality of the FDA's messaging — and over whether early dismissal distorted research and prescribing — remains contested in court (Apter v. HHS, revived by the Fifth Circuit in 2023 and later settled with the FDA removing the posts) and in public debate.