Trump finishes taking controversial hydroxy drug prescription and says 'I'm still here' after facing criticism for touting it as a COVID-19 treatment despite lack of scientific evidence

President Donald Trump says he has finished taking his prescription of the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

Trump revealed last week that he has been taking the drug for several weeks as a preventative medicine despite a lack of scientific evidence that it wards off coronavirus. 

'Finished, just finished,' Trump said in an interview with Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson that aired on Sunday. 

'And by the way, I'm still here. To the best of my knowledge, here I am.' 

Trump has faced criticism for repeatedly promoting the drug's use against the coronavirus and urging people to try it.

'What have you got to lose?' Trump has previously said.

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President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired on Sunday he has finished taking his prescription of the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine

The US Food and Drug Administration has allowed healthcare providers to use the drugs for COVID-19 through an emergency-use authorization but has not approved them to treat it. 

Trump revealed he had finished his prescription dose as a study showed that hydroxychloroquine was tied to an increased risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. 

In the study that looked at more than 96,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19, those treated with hydroxychloroquine or the related chloroquine had higher risk of death and heart rhythm problems than patients who were not given the medicines.

The study, published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday, showed no benefit for coronavirus patients taking the drugs.  

The Lancet study authors suggested that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of clinical trials until studies confirm their safety and efficacy in such patients.

There is a frantic search for drugs to treat COVID-19 at the same time that multiple research teams pursue a safe and effective vaccine to combat a pathogen that has killed more than 97,000 Americans and resulted in over 1.6 million infections. 

Trump reveals he will stop taking unapproved malaria drug

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Trump has faced criticism for repeatedly promoting the drug's use against the coronavirus and urging people to try it. The FDA has allowed healthcare providers to use the drugs for COVID-19 through an emergency-use authorization but has not approved them to treat it

The FDA has said that, for safety reasons, hydroxychloroquine should be used only for hospitalized COVID-19 patients or those in clinical trials. The drug has been tied to dangerous heart rhythm problems. 

The Lancet study looked at data from 671 hospitals where 14,888 patients were given either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, with or without an antibiotic, and 81,144 patients were not given such treatments.

Both drugs have shown evidence of effectiveness against the coronavirus in a laboratory setting, but studies in patients had proven inconclusive. Several small studies in Europe and China spurred interest in using hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, but were criticized for lacking scientific rigor.

Several more recent studies have not shown the drug to be an effective COVID-19 treatment. Last week, two studies published in the medical journal BMJ showed that patients given hydroxychloroquine did not improve significantly over those who were not.

Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis as well as malaria.

There are ongoing randomized, controlled clinical trials to study the drug's effectiveness in preventing infection by the coronavirus as well as treating mild to moderate COVID-19. Some of those may yield results within weeks.