Doctors allegedly 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 Trump at televised briefings as potential breakthrough treatments for the virus, which has killed more than 500 people in the United

States and infected at least 43,000.

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.”

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