This week, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy voted to ‘repeal’ the temporary rule related to hydroxycholoroquine/choloroquine (HCQ/CQ) prescription dispensing, that placed restrictions on its use. It now has no restrictions related to COVID-19 impairing its ability to be prescribed.

The rule dates back to March 25, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy adopted a temporary emergency rule that prohibits the dispensing of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for presumptive treatment or prevention of COVID-19 infection to preserve supplies for treatment of inflammatory conditions, malaria, and documented COVID-19 infection in hospitalized patients.

The rule was revised on April 2 to allow CQ/HCQ treatment to patients with a positive test result for or clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 infection, in response to the challenges related to testing capabilities and delayed turnaround testing times faced by Oregon care providers.

Later that month, in response to guidelines issued by the National Institutes of Health, the board further restricted prescriptions of CQ/HCQ to protect the availability of the drug. It cited the guidelines, which said, “At present, no drug has been proven to be safe and effective for treating COVID-19. There are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically to treat patients with COVID-19. Although reports have appeared in the medical literature and the lay press claiming successful treatment of patients with COVID-19 with a variety of agents, definitive clinical trial data are needed to identify optimal treatments for this disease.”

The flexibility shown by the Oregon Board of Pharmacy and responsiveness to what is clearly not an availability crisis, nor a clear case of the drug being ineffective is refreshing, in an increasingly political world of government orders and directives. When so many agencies and politicians claim to be driven by science, it’s nice to see one that actually is.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-07-17 19:21:48