Supply Shortages Reported
Angus Worthing, MD, a rheumatologist at Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates, Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, Md., also received calls from patients late last week saying that pharmacies were out of HCQ. Supplies need to be maintained for patients who have prescriptions, he says.
“People with systemic autoimmune diseases need to refill their drugs. Just about everyone with systemic lupus takes HCQ as a preventive drug,” says Dr. Worthing, who strongly supports the ACR speaking on behalf of rheumatologists to ensure the FDA closely monitors and reports any drug shortages. “In talking to my patients who have concerns about COVID-19, I am going through the current drugs they take one by one and addressing their questions. When I tell them that HCQ doesn’t suppress their immune systems, it calms their concerns.”
Madelaine Feldman, MD
Madelaine Feldman, MD, a rheumatologist at The Rheumatology Group, New Orleans, also received calls from patients saying that local pharmacies could not refill their HCQ prescriptions. She says her staff was only able to find one pharmacy, an independent store in Mississippi, that had HCQ in stock.
“It is important for lupus patients, probably even those who are in remission, to continue taking their HCQ,” says Dr. Feldman, who states that hospitals in New Orleans have been using HCQ as part of the cocktail of medications given COVID-19 patients for weeks, draining the supply for her patients. “I don’t feel confident that my patients will be able to get their medications. Every day, I look at my practice’s electronic health record, and the portal is full of messages asking where patients can refill their HCQ [prescriptions] because their drugstore is out of it.”
Veena K. Ranganath, MD, MS
Public Health Crisis
Rheumatologist Veena K. Ranganath, MD, MS, associated clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, also reports HCQ shortages at local pharmacies. “My lupus patients really need these medications. I worry that we will see an increase in flares later, and that if they have a really bad flare, we’ll have to prescribe high-dose prednisone, which will increase their risk of contracting viral infections. I worry for my patients,” she says.
Several clinical trials are investigating the treatment—including one led by researchers at Columbia University in New York that will begin recruiting 1,600 patients this month—are underway in the U.S. and other countries.3
