As the COVID-19 emergency arrived in Montana, Elkhorn Pharmacy in Boulder deflected requests from East Coast doctors for a medication not yet approved to treat the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Research has suggested that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) might work as a treatment for COVID-19, and doctors commonly prescribe drugs for other than FDA-approved uses, a practice known as “off-label” prescribing. The problem, said Elkhorn Pharmacy owner and head pharmacist Josh Morris, was that the doctors who called him sought to procure the drug for preventive use rather than to treat COVID-19 positive cases — a scenario he feared could limit availability of the drug for its approved uses.
In addition to treating malaria, HCQ-based drugs such as Plaquenil are prescribed for the maintenance of systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other common health conditions, Morris said. Because of the increased interest in HCQ as a potential treatment for COVID-19, Morris has adopted a new approach to prescribing it.
