Oleandrin is an extract of the plant Nerium oleander. The crude oilseed rape plant is highly toxic, and its consumption can be fatal.
“He was enthusiastic because he’s on everything that will help people,” he told CNN, adding that Trump wanted the Food and Drug Administration “to do his course.”
Trump confirmed that he was “heard about” oleandrin when asked about the White House South House on Monday, but he still appeared to be in an information gathering phase.
“Is it something that people talk about very strongly?” he asked the reporter.
“We’ll look at it, we’ll look at it, we’ll look at a lot of different things. I’m going to say the FDA is great. They’s very close. We’re very close to a vaccine. Very close to a therapist. I mentioned that name. called, we will find out, “the president said.
it is unclear whether he raised it with the FDA. A task force member told CNN that this was never raised at a task force meeting – even those attended by Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, who is a member of the White House coronavirus task force, with whom Lindell said that he shared brought his findings.
“I brought this to Secretary Carson and he did his due diligence and was just amazed. He said it was very exciting to see all the details,” he said.
The president is known for embracing and promoting scientific approaches to the coronavirus. He said earlier that he was taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine, a drug he has long touted as a potential cure for coronavirus, even as medical experts and the FDA question its effectiveness and warn of potentially harmful side effects.
Last week, Lindell was added to the board of Phoenix Biotechnology, which makes oleandrin, and received a financial stake in the company.
“The reason I did that, I want this to come out so badly to the public and I want to get it out there to help people,” he said.
Oleandrin is not approved by the FDA. The agency generally does not approve nutritional supplements, but says it is the company’s responsibility to ensure their products are safe and claims are true. FDA has gone to hundreds of products to make false claims about diagnosis, prevention or treatment of Covid-19.
The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN. The White House declined to comment on the record, but a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said Trump supported “safe and effective” treatments.
“I am confident that the President strongly supports any possible safe and effective COVID treatment. As always, let us see where the trials take us,” said Michael Caputo, HHS spokesman.
Lindell said the supplement did not come when he had a subsequent meeting with Trump about advertising.
Lindell, who hails from the Minneapolis area, is the president of the Minnesota Trump campaign and often makes appearances on behalf of Trump. He plans to attend the president’s remarks in Mankato later Monday and was not sure if he would meet with the president while he was in town. He’s thinking very much about following a run for office, as he originally told CNN in 2018.
The maker of MyPillow said he gets several pitches for personal protective equipment and therapy, first heard about oleandrin when he was contacted on Easter Sunday by Andrew Whitney of Phoenix Biotechnology.
Lindell said he did his own due diligence and research, calling University of Texas and Fort Detrick research in Maryland, calling his findings “so exciting.” He took the extract himself as prophylactic and encouraged friends and family to do the same.
No studies involving oleandrin and Covid-19 have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, and there is no public information to show that oleandrin has been tested in Covid-19 patients. One pre-print study, which has not been peer-reviewed or published, found that the extract had antiviral effects against Covid-19 in cells in the lab. Two of the study’s authors are committed to Phoenix Biotechnology.
Lindell expressed frustration that the FDA still approved oleandrin for either the supplement list as a research number for new drugs (IND).
CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht, Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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