Gov. Gary Herbert’s legal team is reviewing whether the compounding pharmacy from which the state of Utah purchased a controversial anti-malaria drug to treat COVID-19 ever had state and federal approval to mass produce the medication, the governor’s office said Friday.
That’s one of several lines of questioning into the cost and transparency of the state’s $800,000 deal with Draper-based Meds in Motion to buy enough hydroxychloroquine to treat 20,000 patients, said Paul Edwards,spokesman for the governor’s COVID-19 Community Task Force.
“There seems to be a question around whether a compounding pharmacy has authorization to do bulk sales,” Edwards said, adding that the drug’s price — $40 per treatment – is also being looked at, now that supply chains have normalized.
The purchase, which the state ordered on March 31 and paid for on April 8, has drawn widespread scrutiny, as has the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
President Donald Trump has touted the drug, paired with azithromycin, as a possible “game changer.” Infectious disease experts and physicians, meanwhile, have cautioned against the use of hydroxychloroquine, which several studies have shown to be ineffective against the illness and even harmful.
Two trials by the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare are currently ongoing in Utah. The FDA on Friday warned against using hydroxychloroquine to treat the illness caused by the coronavirus outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing heart risks.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Herbert said he had his own questions about how the purchase came to be, which he said he was not aware of at the time. But he also defended the state’s actions, saying officials moved quickly to protect the public at a time when supplies were becoming scarce.
Utah has not, however, taken possession of the medication. State officials also announced Friday that they will not move forward with plans to purchase another 200,000 treatments from Meds in Motion. On Thursday, state lawmakers had approved spending $6 million to stockpile drugs to treat COVID-19, on top of $2 million already appropriated.
Meds In Motion CEO Dan Richards could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, which issues business licenses in Utah, declined to comment, citing the state’s pending legal review. The Food and Drug Administration did not immediately respond to questions.
State records show that Meds in Motion is designated as a Class A pharmacy, which according to Utah law, allows the company to compound or dispense a drug at a retail level to those with a prescription. Pharmacies designated as Class C are authorized to manufacture, produce, wholesale or distribute drugs in Utah.
Officials are not suspicious of “any self-dealing going on on behalf of state officials, but there are some genuine questions out there,” Edwards said. “The first questions for us internally are about who was involved and what was the reasoning.”
