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Across the globe, concerns of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) supply shortages for patients with rheumatic disease are growing,1 in part as a consequence of the immense scientific and public enthusiasm for HCQ as a potential COVID-19 therapy.2 3 However, published data on the occurrence of HCQ shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic are presently lacking. Therefore, we conducted a national survey of 531 Canadian rheumatologists between 14 and 24 April 2020. The 5-question electronic survey (French or English) included province of practice, whether respondents were concerned about HCQ shortages in their province, and whether they had been contacted by patients or pharmacies regarding difficulties renewing HCQ prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physicians who answered ‘yes’ to the latter question were asked to estimate for how many patients this occurred. The McGill University Health Centre research ethics board approved this survey.
Of 134 rheumatologists who completed the survey (25% response rate), three quarters (n=102, 76%) were concerned about HCQ shortages, while 81 (60%) had been contacted by pharmacies or patients …
Footnotes
Contributors AM, SB, EV: Study conception, design, data acquisition, analysis, interpretation of data, drafting work and revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version submitted. CT, DL, SRJ: Data analysis, interpretation, drafting work and revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version submitted.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests CT reports advisory board (Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, Lilly, Medexus/Medac, Merk, Pfizer, Sandoz), consultant (Celgene, Centocor, Medexus/Medac, Merk, Pfizer), speaker (Medexus/Medac), all outside the submitted work; SRJ reports site investigator (Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Corbus, GSK, BMS), advisory board (Ikaria, Boehringer Ingelheim), all outside the submitted work.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, conduct, reporting or dissemination plans of this research.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
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