By Tatyana Monnay
April 8, 2020 11:39 am

... the conservative nonprofit group Job Creators Network collaborated with health care nonprofit Physicians for Reform to launch an online petition, a series of Facebook ads and a mass text message campaign urging Trump to make hydroxychloroquine available to treat patients battling COVID-19, Sludge reported. These groups do not disclose their sources of funding.

“There is clear and ever-mounting evidence that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine can significantly help patients who contract coronavirus,” the petition read.

One of Trump’s most influential supporters, Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, founded the Job Creators Network in 2011. Marcus gave $7 million to outside groups supporting Trump’s 2016 presidential run. He also gave $100,000 to the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action in 2018 to further support Trump’s second presidential bid and plans to spend even more to support Trump’s reelection ...

There is a shortage of hydroxychloroquine, which is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat malaria, arthritis and lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. The shortage is driven in part by doctors hoarding it and prescribing it to themselves, families and friends, ProPublica reported. Now, lupus patients are struggling to fill their prescription ...

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/04/dark-money-groups-pushed-trump-to-back-hydroxychloroquine/