It’s been a long, strange trip for Oklahoma’s $2.6 million shipment of hydroxychloroquine, bought a year ago as a once-promising treatment for COVID-19.

The 1.2 million doses of the drug normally used to treat lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and prevent malaria were shipped from a California distributor to a small pharmacy in Pryor, with the state paying for the hydroxychloroquine from money borrowed from fees generated by medical marijuana licenses.

The hydroxychloroquine now sits in a warehouse at an undisclosed location, with the Oklahoma State Department of Health reluctant to answer questions about what it will do with the drug or why it went to Pryor. Records obtained by Oklahoma Watch show the drug has an expiration date in December. Meanwhile, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients had to navigate a temporary shortage related to a spike in demand related to the drug’s supposed COVID-19 usage.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, former Secretary of Health Jerome Loughridge authorized the purchase of up to $3 million of hydroxychloroquine from California-based FFF Enterprises Inc., according to an April 3, 2020 memo.