Border towns see run on drug touted by Trump
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Americans are making a mad dash south of the border in search of what President Donald J. Trump calls a “game changer” – a drug he calls a potential cure for the coronavirus, even as some health experts cast doubt on its effectiveness.
Hydroxychloroquine, the antimalaria medication known as Plaquenil, is a hot drug here, with more than a dozen pharmacies saying they’ve run out. The demand is so high, that pharmacists said Monday and over the weekend that they’re now requiring written prescriptions from doctors who must state the medicine is for patients with conditions that include lupus and malaria, conditions for which the drug is normally used.
“There have been clients who want to purchase up to eight or 10 boxes of Plaquenil,” said Carmen Teresa Martha Cruz, 39, a counter clerk at Farmacias del Ahorro, a popular Mexican pharmacy chain. “Clients are desperate to acquire the product.”
Prices range between $20 to about $30 per box. The FDA has not approved its use for the treatment of coronavirus.
Trump’s buoyant attitude about the drug has deepened worries among doctors and pharmacists on both sides of the border.
But while Plaquenil tablets can be life-changing for people who suffer, for example, from lupus, clinical trials for coronavirus treatment are only just beginning. Some experts doubt whether it will be an effective treatment for the virus while others, including a group of Chinese doctors who first used it as a coronavirus treatment, say it offers hope.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, warned against “false hope” in the medicine, saying claims of cure-alls can “do more harm than good.”
Along the border, where an array of pharmacies line the port of entry, physicians urged caution. Used improperly, the drug can even lead to sudden death.
“Medication taken without supervision is a dangerous proposition because, if serious side effects happen, the safety of the person is compromised,” said Dr. Juan Herrada, an oncologist in El Paso who’s been monitoring the coronavirus outbreak in his native Spain and has seen demand for the anti-malaria medication grow in Europe and now across the U.S. and along the border.
“Bottom line: Just because you hoarded the meds in the pharmacy does not make it safe to take anything unless a medical provider evaluates you first,” Herrada added.