Donald Trump says he has asked ‘genius’ drug companies to help with Boris Johnson’s covid-19 treatment
US President Donald Trump said last night that he had asked “genius” drug companies to help Prime Minister Boris Johnson who was admitted to intensive care last night after his struggle with covid-19 took a turn for the worst.
“We’re very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon, a little while ago and Americans are all praying for his recovery,” Trump told the White House’s daily coronavirus press conference late last night.
“He’s been a really good friend…we have made tremendous progress on therapeutics…and I’ve asked two of the leading companies, these are brilliant companies – ebola, AIDS, others – they’ve come with the solutions and just have done incredible jobs…And I’ve asked them to contact London immediately, they have offices in London, these are major companies, but more than major, more than size, they’re genius,” Trump said.
Trump said he had asked two unnamed drug companies to help Johnson with his treatment and also said he had contacted the Prime Minister’s doctors.
“We’ve contacted all of Boris’s doctors and we’ll see what is going to take place…but when you get brought into intensive care that gets very serious,” Trump said.
Earlier in the day he spoke to the heads of four US pharmaceutical and biotech companies: Amgen, Gilead, Genetech and Regeneron.
Trump also repeatedly talked up the merits of the drug hydroxychloroquine in treating covid-19, but his officials cautioned there was no proof it was an effective treatment for the virus.