Medical groups warn of serious shortages of hydroxychloroquine
Drug has become prized since Donald Trump and others began saying it could treat coronavirus
Sufferers of serious medical conditions eased by hydroxychloroquine have reported shortages in parts of Europe since US president Donald Trump and others began to claim the drug could be used to combat coronavirus.
The medicine, an anti-malaria treatment also used by sufferers of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, has become harder to find during the escalating international campaign to deploy it against coronavirus, European medical advocacy groups said.
This highlights a potentially problematic side effect of the rush to promote hydroxychloroquine as a virus remedy, despite the lack of robust evidence that it works.
Alain Cornet, general secretary of Lupus Europe, a patients’ group, said he hoped the drug would prove effective against the virus but warned the dash to use it was potentially damaging. He cited anecdotal evidence that some people had bought out pharmacy supplies to stockpile at home.
“I think it’s irresponsible to have big announcements when you can’t guarantee that everyone can get it,” he said. “The impact . . . is that some people who need it won’t get it.”
Mr Cornet said a survey by his organisation in late March suggested up to 60 per cent of patients had not been able to find hydroxychloroquine at pharmacies. While in most instances the drug arrived within a few days, in about 10 to 20 per cent of cases — potentially representing thousands of people — it did not.
Lupus is estimated to affect more than 100,000 people in Europe — the vast majority of them women — and experts think use of hydroxychloroquine over the past decade has helped sufferers live longer. At least another 2m people in Europe are thought to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.
Both are diseases of the immune system. This means many sufferers will be at greater than average risk from Covid-19, particularly if they are forced to seek hospital treatment because a drugs shortage has caused their conditions to flare.
The European League Against Rheumatism (Eular) — which represents patients, health professionals and scientific societies — said it had received reports of localised hydroxychloroquine shortages in Austria, Portugal, Serbia and the UK.
Drug industry officials say doctors in some countries had been prescribing the drug for coronavirus, leaving medical authorities scrambling to ensure supplies to longstanding users.
“Hydroxychloroquine is a tried and tested drug for rheumatoid arthritis and particularly lupus,” said Iain McInnes, Eular president.
“These are patients who are already immunosuppressed and so they are part of a vulnerable group. Lupus is a disease that can target major organs, for example the kidneys, so the risks are potentially quite significant,” added Prof McInnes.
Mr Trump has repeatedly referred to hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” in the fight against coronavirus, despite an absence of clinical trials proving its effectiveness. His advocacy of the medicine has led to soaring demand from manufacturers scattered across the globe as the medicine is off-patent.
Drugmakers, including Novartis, Sanofi, Teva and Mylan, have said they would ramp up production of the drug and distribute it for compassionate use.
India, one of the largest hydroxychloroquine manufacturers, signalled a softening of its export ban on the drug after Mr Trump threatened to retaliate if New Delhi did not fulfil existing orders.
India placed a blanket export prohibition on hydroxychloroquine on Saturday as it raced to contain an outbreak of the virus that threatens to overwhelm its fragile healthcare system.
But India's ministry of external affairs said on Tuesday that — while exports of hydroxychloroquine would remain restricted — “the stock position could allow our companies to meet the export commitments that they had contracted”.