India’s Prime Minister is considering relaxing his blanket ban on exporting malaria drug

India’s Narendra Modi is reportedly considering relaxing his blanket ban on exporting a malaria drug which scientists believe could be used to treat coronavirus, following a phone call with President Trump. 

The US president has described the drug, known as hydroxychloroquine, as a ‘game changer’ in the battle against Covid-19, although its efficacy in tackling the virus is not yet known. 

India produces the drug in large quantities but the country on Saturday banned its export ‘without any exception’. 

The US president has described the drug, known as hydroxychloroquine, as a ‘game changer’ in the battle against Covid-19, although its efficacy in tackling the virus is not yet known 

Local media is now reporting that Mr Modi is considering whether to reverse the ban, following a telephone conversation with Trump, and could make a decision on the issue as early as this week. 

It is not yet clear whether hydroxychloroquine is effectively able to treat Covid-19 patients. Typically used to treat auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, researchers believe it could also work as anti-viral medication.  

Trump has made his opinion on the drug well known and personally pressed federal health officials to make them available to treat coronavirus, two sources have told Reuters.

The president has repeatedly pushed the drug as a potential treatment, most recently on Sunday, adding ‘But what do I know? I’m not a doctor.’ 

The US president has described the drug, known as hydroxychloroquine, as a ‘game changer’ in the battle against Covid-19, although its efficacy in tackling the virus is not yet known

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other top health advisers have argued there have not been enough studies done to prove the drug was effective against Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

In an interview on CNN on Monday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said 29 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine were sitting in a warehouse. 

He told CNN that at the task force meeting on Saturday, ‘there was unanimous agreement’ that the Federal Emergency Management Agency ‘would immediately begin surging hydroxy into the hot zones to be dispensed only between a doctor and a patient decision not the federal government.’ 

‘My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I’m a social scientist,’ Navarro said during his interview from the White House Monday. ‘I have a PhD, and I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it’s in medicine, the law, economics or whatever’

More than 9,600 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S. as of Monday morning as doctors all over the world scramble to find an effective treatment or vaccine for the fast-spreading respiratory disease

The U.S. has reported the highest number of confirmed cases of coronavirus of any other country – although there is speculation that other nations, like China, are under-reporting

Navarro said Monday that he is qualified to weigh in on the effectiveness of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine on coronavirus because he is a social scientist.

‘Doctors disagree about things all the time,’ Navarro said when asked on CNN Monday morning why he is better qualified to talk about the drug’s effectiveness on COVID-19 than Dr. Anthony Fauci.

‘My qualifications in terms of looking at the science is that I’m a social scientist,’ he continued. ‘I have a PhD, and I understand how to read statistical studies, whether it’s in medicine, the law, economics or whatever.’