It had all the elements of a compelling news story: Donald Trump, Clive Palmer, COVID-19 and a medical breakthrough.

Hydroxychloroquine has been making headlines since the US president tweeted that the antimalarial, plus azithromycin, could be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine” if used to combat the coronavirus. 

Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer, never a man to shy away from a media opportunity, then used a two-page ad in a daily newspaper to promise to personally fund one million courses of hydroxychloroquine for Australians.

However, there have already been ­stories of medication misadventure — the most widely known is that of a man from Phoenix, US, who died after consuming the related compound chloroquine — in a form intended for cleaning fish tanks.