Pharmacies in major cities have run out of medicines having hydroxychloroquine phosphate, also known as cholroquine, after news began circulating on social media that the drug was effective in treating patients who test positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a media report.
It has been reported that several pharmacy chains in Karachi and Lahore have run out of stock of Plaquenil or Resochin – both of which are available over the counter, include the said ingredient and are normally used to treat malaria.
Resochin was being sold at Rs25 per packet (10 tablets) at pharmacies in Lahore and Karachi before stocks ended.
In a notification on Friday, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) banned the sale of chloroquine medicines without prescription, while also directing that these be sold only by licensed pharmacies and drug stores.
The federal authority said it had received reports of hoarding of the drugs by certain “elements”.
It also asked all pharmacies to maintain records of prescriptions of the drugs and to note down the dosages prescribed by the physicians against which the medicines are sold.
Recent studies have shown that two drugs, remdesivir and chloroquine phosphate, efficiently inhibited the coronavirus in an experimental setting. However, according to a research, an overdose of chloroquine can cause acute poisoning and death.
After these findings, a group of researchers of the Department of Science and Technology in China’s Guangdong Province in consultation with the province’s health commission developed “expert consensus in recommending chloroquine phosphate tablet, 500mg twice per day for 10 days for patients diagnosed as mild, moderate and severe cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia”.
Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota has said that it was launching a clinical trial to test hydroxychloroquine as a “post-exposure treatment for coronavirus COVID-19 disease” because “recent work shows that hydroxychloroquine is active in a laboratory setting against” the novel coronavirus.
On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump said the country is fast-tracking the drug for treating coronavirus.
During a White House press conference, Trump said: “[Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine] has shown very encouraging early results […] and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.”
