CDC: Bulk of hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine prescriptions came from primary care

CDC data show that primary care prescribers were responsible for more than half of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine prescriptions dispensed at outpatient retail pharmacies between March and April in the United States.

Although primarily used to treat autoimmune diseases and malaria, the drugs were cleared by the FDA in March to treat COVID-19. However, the agency’s emergency use authorization was rescinded in June following reports of cardiac and other serious adverse events.

Lara Bull-Otterson, PhD, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention, and colleagues analyzed outpatient retail pharmacy transaction data to identify potential differences in prescriptions by provider type between January and June.

They found that new prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine by specialists who did not typically prescribe those medications increased from 1,143 prescriptions in February 2020 to 75,569 in March 2020 — an 80-fold increase compared with March 2019.

Specifically, primary care prescribers were responsible for writing 10,350 dispensed prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in March 2019 and 108,705 in March 2020, representing a 10.5-fold increase. They also wrote 67,055 prescriptions, or 63% of all new prescriptions, for these drugs in April 2020.

However, the researchers noted that prescribing decreased in May and June of this year.

Bull-Otterson and colleagues encouraged nonroutine hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine prescribers — meaning, all health care professionals except allergists, dermatologists, nephrologists and rheumatologists — to pay attention to future clinical guidelines to “help safeguard supplies and ensure safe use of these medications for patients with approved indications.”