Sign Our Petition to Governor J.B. Pritzker!

We,  the Lupus Society of Illinois and the undersigned, call for Governor J.B. Pritzker to issue an emergency rule placing limits on dispensing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to ensure lupus patients receive medicine proven effective in the battle against the disease.

As a result of the anecdotal evidence that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine benefit in the treatment of COVID-19, lupus patients, whose lives depend on these drugs, are not able to get prescriptions filled.

Lupus patients are on a regimen of medicines to keep life-threatening flares (active disease) at bay.  By upsetting the treatment regimen, they jeopardize their health.

Limiting the availability of this drug or suggesting changes in a treatment plan for someone with lupus puts that patient’s life in danger.  A life lost to lupus is just as significant as a life lost to COVID-19.

Governor Pritzker, given the lack of evidence for effectiveness of these drugs on COVID-19 and the risk to lupus patients who are struggling to get their prescription to medically proven effective treatment, we ask that you enact the following (as the State of Ohio did on March 20):

1. No prescription for chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine may be dispensed by a pharmacist or sold at retail by a licensed terminal distributor of dangerous drugs unless all the following apply:   
   1. The prescription bears a written diagnosis code from the  prescriber;
   2. If written for a COVID-19 diagnosis, the diagnosis has been confirmed by a positive test result, which is documented on the prescription and both of the following apply;
      1. The prescription is limited to no more than a fourteen-day supply; and
      2. No refills may be permitted
2. Prescriptions for either presumptive positive patients or prophylactic use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine related to COVID-19 is strictly prohibited.