PHOENIX — Editor's note: The above video about a lupus patient struggling to get a prescription aired March 28, 2020.
Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order Thursday making it easier to get a refill on necessary prescriptions.
But the requirements to fill out a prescription for chloroquine – which has been touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19 – have been tightened up.
Chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate are used to treat malaria, and hydroxychloroquine sulfate can prevent or treat lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
The Food and Drug Administration said researchers are trying to find out if chloroquine can stop the virus from spreading within a person's body, but the clinical trials are still ongoing.
Despite this, the FDA authorized emergency use of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate for adults hospitalized with COVID-19 who weigh 110 pounds or more.
If you're trying to get the anti-malarial drugs to treat COVID-19 in Arizona, you need a prescription with a diagnosis code for COVID-19, and you can't get a refill without another prescription.
Patients trying to treat the virus are limited to a supply of no more than 14 days.
You cannot get a prescription unless you have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The executive order prohibits preventative prescriptions unless peer-reviewed evidence emerges that shows the drug actually can protect against the disease.
Patients taking chloroquine for treatment of a disease other than COVID-19 do not have to meet the requirements laid out in the executive order.
