On March 19, the FDA announced that it will play a critical role in government-wide responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including surveillance of drug supplies and working with clinical trial investigators to study potential therapies, such as HCQ, chloroquine (an older anti-malarial drug) and several IL-6 inhibitors approved for use in RA and other rheumatic diseases. For now, rheumatologists still have serious concerns about the availability of their patients’ medications.
“This is creating a public health crisis: The overutilization of HCQ for a condition—COVID-19—where the data currently do not justify its use has overwhelmed the supply chain currently designed for patients with systemic autoimmune diseases, such as SLE or RA,” says Dr. Kim. “Compounding the situation is the speed at which this interest exploded. Obviously, the supply chain could not catch up. This has put lupus patients, particularly, in health jeopardy, because this is the most important drug we have in our arsenal to treat lupus.”
Susan Bernstein is a freelance journalist based in Atlanta.
References
- Thomas K, Grady D. Trump’s embrace of unproven drugs to treat coronavirus defies science. The New York Times. 2020 Mar 20.
- Gautret P, Lagier JC, Parola P, et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: Results of an open-label, non-randomized clinical trial. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Mar 20:105949. [Epub ahead of print]
- Oelsner E, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Hydroxychloroquine post-exposure prophylaxis for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) (NCT04318444). Clinicaltrials.gov. 2020 Mar 25.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA news release: Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: FDA continues to facilitate development of treatments. 2020 Mar 19.
