Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun 23;323(24):2524-2526.
doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.9184.

Prescription Fill Patterns for Commonly Used Drugs During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

Affiliations

Prescription Fill Patterns for Commonly Used Drugs During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

Muthiah Vaduganathan et al. JAMA. .

Abstract

This pharmacoepidemiology study uses US pharmacy data to compare prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine and azithromycin in February to April 2020 vs 2019, and vs the top 10 most commonly prescribed drugs in the same year, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Vaduganathan reported being supported by the KL2/Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training award (National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences Award UL 1TR002541); serving on advisory boards for Amgen, AstraZeneca, Baxter Healthcare, Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cytokinetics, and Relypsa; and participating on clinical end point committees for studies sponsored by Novartis and the National Institutes of Health. Dr van Meijgaard is an employee of GoodRx. Dr Mehra reported receiving travel support and consulting fees, paid to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, from Abbott; fees for serving on a steering committee from Medtronic and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson); fees for serving on a data and safety monitoring board from Mesoblast; consulting fees from Portola, Bayer, and Triple Gene; and fees for serving as a scientific board member from NuPulseCV, Leviticus, and FineHeart. Dr Mehra also reported receiving personal fees from Baim Institute for Clinical Research and Roivant. Dr Joseph reported receiving grants from Novartis, Amgen, Otsuka, and Kowa and is a consultant for Novartis. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure.
Figure.. Prescription Fill Patterns for Commonly Used Drugs During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in the United States
Weekly prescriptions from February 16 to April 25, 2020, were compared with those from February 17 to April 27, 2019. Each date on the x-axis refers to the last day of the week. EUA indicates Emergency Use Authorization; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; and WHO, World Health Organization.

References

    1. Vaduganathan M, Vardeny O, Michel T, McMurray JJV, Pfeffer MA, Solomon SD. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors in patients with COVID-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(17):1653-1659. doi:10.1056/NEJMsr2005760 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. van Meijgaard J, Li D, Marsh T, Nguyen A GoodRx research data description. Published April 2020. Accessed April 26, 2020. https://www.goodrx.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GoodRx-Research-D...
    1. Gautret P, Lagier JC, Parola P, et al. . Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. Int J Antimicrob Agents. Published online March 20, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105949 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu M, Caputi TL, Dredze M, Kesselheim AS, Ayers JW. Internet searches for unproven COVID-19 therapies in the United States. JAMA Intern Med. 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1764 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Food and Drug Administration Current and resolved drug shortages and discontinuations reported to FDA. Published March 31, 2020. Accessed May 11, 2020. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/dsp_ActiveIngredien...

Publication types