Rx Drugs

Anthem said Wednesday (April 1) it would waive cost-sharing for all treatments related to the COVID-19 diagnosis through May 31, the fourth major insurer to make such a decision in recent weeks.

It could take six to 12 months before drug companies are making enough of hydroxychloroquine to meet demand if the drug is proven to treat COVID-19, according to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal.

Most pharmacists oppose restrictions on sales of hydroxychloroquine that a growing number of states are imposing to maintain supplies of the drug for auto-immune patients after the president promoted it as a COVID-19 treatment.

The White House is reviewing FDA’s proposed reporting requirements for drug makers who provide investigational drugs to patients through the Right to Try pathway.

FDA made it easier for compounders to make hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine by adding the anti-malaria drugs to the drug shortage list Tuesday (March 31), after receiving pressure from several compounding associations for the agency to list the drugs and make the formulations available for compounding by outsourcers.

Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia called for FDA to ease risk mitigation requirements for abortion medication mifepristone, or at least allow certified prescribers to use telehealth to prescribe the drug during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health care providers and health care systems that administer hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate to patients as a potential COVID-19 treatment must track adverse events and report them to FDA within seven calendar days from onset of the event.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate health committees Friday (March 27) said they’ll fight to include in the next stimulus package a number of proposals aimed at expanding access to affordable health insurance and making COVID-19 vaccines and treatments free for all patients.

The Trump administration is working with COVID-19 vaccine developers to start producing their vaccines before they’re proven to work, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing Thursday night (March 26).