States: Doctors stockpiling drugs for themselves

Doctors are hoarding medications touted as possible coronavirus treatments by writing prescriptions for themselves and family members, according to pharmacy boards in states across the country.

The stockpiling has become so worrisome in Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Nevada, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Texas that the boards in those states have issued emergency restrictions or guidelines on how the drugs can be dispensed at pharmacies. More states are expected to follow suit.

“This is a real issue, and it is not some product of a few isolated bad apples,” said Jay Campbell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy.

The medications being prescribed differ slightly from state to state, but include those lauded by President Donald Trump at televised briefings as potential breakthrough treatments for the virus.

None of the drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for that use. Some of them — including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — are commonly used to treat malaria, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.

Pharmacists have been swapping stories on social media about the spike in prescriptions written by doctors for themselves or their families.

“I have multiple prescribers calling in prescriptions for Plaquenil for themselves and their family members as a precaution. Is this ethical?” one person wrote Sunday in a Facebook group for pharmacists, referring to a brand name of hydroxychloroquine.

Others weighed in — some noting similar experiences — and expressed their hesitancy to dispense such prescriptions.

“I got called a communist for telling a prescriber, who was trying to call it in for themselves, no,” someone posted Friday in another Facebook group for pharmacists.

Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, said state boards were “trying to stop the hoarding and inappropriate prescribing, but balancing what patients need.”

Campbell, of the North Carolina board, said medical boards and associations had to get involved as well to curb the behavior of prescribers.

The American Medical Association denounced the practice in a statement from its president, Dr. Patrice Harris.

“The AMA is calling for a stop to any inappropriate prescribing and ordering of medications, including chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, and appealing to physicians and all health care professionals to follow the highest standards of professionalism and ethics,” she said.

Harris also noted that the country’s health care professionals “continue to demonstrate remarkable leadership every day,” and can look to the organization’s code of medical ethics for guidance.

The first restrictions were imposed last week in Idaho. The board there imposed a temporary rule that bars pharmacies from dispensing two drugs — chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — unless the prescription includes a written diagnosis of a condition that the drugs have been proven to treat. The rule also limits prescriptions to a 14-day supply unless a patient has previously taken the medication.

“We wanted to try to get out in front of that as early as we could,” said Nicki Chopski, executive director of the board in Idaho, where pharmacists began reporting a significant uptick in prescriptions for the medications last week.

The prescriptions, she said, were being written by doctors for themselves and their family members, often in large quantities with refills.