Two drugs touted as possible treatments for COVID-19 can no longer be prescribed for people who want them just in case they get sick.
An executive order issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo this week limits prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to COVID-19 patients in state-approved clinical trials, and for FDA-approved uses as an antimalarial or autoimmune treatment, and then only for a 14-day supply with no refills.
The order came as the state is starting wide-scale trials of hydroxychloroquine in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients. Surging demand for the medications had already depleted pharmacies of the drugs, and nearly 10 other states have also limited prescriptions amid reports that some physicians were self-prescribing drugs for themselves, families and friends as well as still-healthy patients.
The president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Patrice Harris, issued a statement calling for a stop “to any inappropriate prescribing and ordering of medications,” and appealed “to physicians and all health care professionals to follow the highest standards of professionalism and ethics. The nation’s physicians and other health care professionals continue to demonstrate remarkable leadership every day.”
Demand for the drugs spiked after early anecdotal studies suggested — but with no proof from a wide-scale clinical study — that those medications could help fight the coronavirus.
Hospitals are treating patients with these and other treatments such as high-dose vitamin C after early reports showed possible promise, said Onisis Stefas, chief pharmacy officer for Northwell Health. He said the hospital system was tracking data on a relatively small number of patients getting vitamin C intravenously. "It's too early to tell, but anecdotally it looks like it could be helping patients here."
However, results of a small study in Shanghai published this week did not show significant difference in outcomes between COVID-19 patients who received hydroxychloroquine and a control group that did not. The study’s researchers called for a much larger study for more definitive findings. A small French study with no control group reported more promising results using higher doses for a longer period.
