FDA gives emergency approval for antimalarial drugs in treating coronavirus patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued late Sunday an emergency-use authorization for two antimalarial drugs for use in treating patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

The drugs, chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate, have been touted by President Trump and used off-label anecdotally with encouraging results, but they had not been FDA-approved for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services also said that it had also received 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz and 1...