Demographic Variation In US Outpatient Hydroxychloroquine And Ivermectin Use During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Health Affairs February 19, 2025
Michelle S. Rockwell, Sitaram Vangala, Michael Hadfield, Jonathan Cantor, Dale Skinner, Melody Craff, A. Mark Fendrick, Cheryl L. Damberg, Katherine Kahn, John N. Mafi

Abstract

As COVID-19 surged across the US starting in 2020, so too did the use of repurposed medications such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat COVID-19 infections. Use of these medications throughout the public health emergency and across demographic subgroups is not well understood. Using insurance claims from the MedInsight Emerging Experience Research Database for 8.1 million patients from all fifty US states, we evaluated COVID-19-associated outpatient hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin use and spending throughout the public health emergency (January 30, 2020–May 11, 2023) versus pre–public health emergency rates. Extrapolated to the US population, approximately three million prescriptions (totaling $272 million in spending) were used; 7 percent followed Food and Drug Administration authorization of outpatient COVID-19 medications ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir, molnupiravir, and...

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