We are over six months into the consequences of the SARS-Co-V2 pandemic in the United States. Patients, families and doctors are frightened, weary and frustrated by the lack of support from regulatory agencies — the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state medical and pharmacy boards — for medical prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19.
Warnings and barriers have prevented hundreds of thousands of patients from being treated at home with appropriate non-labelled use of off-target antivirals (zinc, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, doxycycline), steroids (dexamethasone, prednisone, budesonide, colchicine), and antithrombotics (low-molecular weight heparin, oral anticoagulants). It has become apparent that America has adopted a late-illness hospitalization model while waiting patiently and painfully for the panacea of a COVID-19 vaccine.
For months now the business news cycle has been popping with stories about vaccine development. “Operation Warp Speed” is an impressive effort supercharged with around $10 billion in federal dollars spent with big pharma such as Merck, Pfizer, JNJ and AstraZeneca, and little biotech companies such as Moderna, Emergent Biosolutions, ApiJect and Panacea Biotec for vaccine development and commercialization. The potential financial windfall has spurred innovations with patents and royalty agreements applied or awarded to both private and government employees.