It was President Donald Trump’s obsession: an anti-malaria drug called Hydroxyl Chloroquine (HCQ). He advocated it as a preventive cure for Covid-19. The hope, the hype and high politics have at last subsided with the finding by not one but three studies in the U.S.A., the UK and Spain that the cure would not work.

  The RECOVERY trial in the UK for example concluded that the drug did not have the expected benefit in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. It does not reduce mortality rates. However, the Indian Health Ministry has advised that HCQ should be used but as early as possible in the treatment.

   On a more hopeful note, India’s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has signed a licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences of the U.S.A. to make and sell the latter’s antiviral drug, Remdesivir as a potential treatment for COVID-19 for emergency use. Dr. Reddy’s Lab will get the technology but has to do the....