A PETITION FOR THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF PHARMACY TO ALLOW PHARMACISTS TO FILL PRESCRIPTIONS FOR HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AND IVERMECTIN REGARDLESS OF DIAGNOSIS
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CALIFORNIA BOARD OF PHARMACY: We seek to reinstate patients' access to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin when prescribed by a physician irrespective of diagnosis. We are asking the Board of Pharmacy to halt prohibiting the selling or dispensing of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. We demand that the California Board of Pharmacy act immediately to honor the patient-doctor-pharmacist relationship and ethical code. The Board of Pharmacy shall not prevent, threaten or intimidate a duly licensed pharmacist from filling either drug for off-label use.
The original intent for blocking physician prescriptions was to prevent the stockpiling of the drugs and to protect the supply. Today, there is no shortage of these medication, either in pharmacies or hospitals. There is no reason to block prescription filling. It is a breech of ethics and duty by the California Board of Pharmacy to block prescriptions from a qualified physician.
Off-label prescribing usually puts only the doctor at risk for litigation, but pharmacists who would comment said they would not allow it because of risk to their licensure by the California Pharmacy Board. Up to one in five prescriptions are written for off-label purposes thus it is a common practice and legal. Consider the most common drug used to treat asthma, albuterol.
Discovered in 1966, it was not approved for children younger than 12 with asthma. It was used it off label before it became approved years later. Gabapentin was originally approved as an anti-convulsant. Its effects led doctors to use it for everything from shingles to neurological pain. Benadryl began its life in an off-label use in 1937 as a way to calm combative prisoners in French prisons.
Current use of hydroxychloroquine is only authorized for certain hospitalized patients. In fact, hydroxychloroquine has been approved for more than 60 years, has an extremely safe track record and has been used by millions of people around the world. Doctors across the globe have offered mountains of evidence that hydroxychloroquine in combination with zinc or azithromycin, when used by patients not yet hospitalized and recently infected, yields extremely positive results.
Ivermectin has been shown to resolve symptoms quickly and effectively as well. This medication is also being used successfully in a multitude of countries. Countries that use these medications are combating the global pandemic far better than countries who have taken other measures and used other medications.
As part of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), we call on the Board to live up to the DCA's mission to"...protect California consumers by providing safe and fair marketplace though oversight, enforcement, and licensure of professions," and the Board of Pharmacy's Mission Statement of protecting and promoting "the health and safety of Californians."