EMA advises against the use of pest control ivermectin against COVID-19

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Monday advised against the use of the antiparasitic ivermectin in the prevention or treatment of the coronavirus outside of controlled clinical trials.

The EMA concluded that “the available data do not justify its use of COVID-19 outside of clinical trials ”, the Amsterdam-based agency reported in a statement. “Further studies are needed to draw conclusions about the efficacy and safety of the product in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19,” reads the all-new writing.

The effectiveness of ivermectin against the coronavirus, sometimes presented on social networks as “miracle” remedy, it is not scientifically proven. The use of this drug as a treatment against the disease is not authorized in the European Union, and the EMA has received “no request for such use,” said the European regulator.

Ivermectin is an inexpensive medicine for veterinary and human use used against parasites, such as scabies, onchocerciasis and lice. However, while an Australian study published in April 2020 observed an in vitro (laboratory) efficacy of invermectin against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this it has not been demonstrated in humans, because so far the trials have been limited and heavily biased.

In addition, very often lIn vitro treatments cannot be transferred to humans, especially since the same drug concentrations cannot be administered.

In United States, doctors gathered in a group called “Frontline COVID-19 Intensive Care Alliance” they vigorously defend this drug. Your most responsible, the doctor Pierre Kory, He even assured in December that its effectiveness had been tested before a committee of the United States Senate.

In France, a website promoting so-called alternative therapies and a source of false information claiming last month that “All the scientific evidence shows the effectiveness of ivermectin.”

These types of statements have proliferated especially in recent months in Latin America. On January 5, the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who had previously promoted hydroxychloroquine as an effective drug against COVID-19, defended the use of ivermectin on Twitter.

Hydroxychloroquine is also an antiparasitic drug promoted at the start of the pandemic by other leaders like Donald Trump, but the effectiveness of which has also not been proven by science.

To support both drugs the same rhetoric is often used on social networks, that the authorities ignore them because they are cheap and therefore unprofitable for the pharmaceutical industry.

“Inconclusive” studies

In France, Eurosceptic politicians Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, François Asselineau y Florian Philippot they demanded last week from the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, information on possible treatments for COVID-19, citing hydroxychloroquine, vitamin D and ivermectin.

In reality, “The most recent (published) clinical studies on the subject are inconclusive, most are either non-peer reviewed preprints or, once published, These are studies with methodological biases which make the results difficult to interpret and do not allow conclusions to be drawn ”, take the SFrench Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), his South African counterpart (SAHPRA) and the Mexican health officials have also publicly stated that ivermectin is not considered an anticovid treatment, due to the lack of reliable and solid scientific data.

As for Unitaid, the international drug buying organization for poor countries that closely monitors any potential treatment for COVID-19, believes that there are “promising preliminary data”, but what “We must wait for the results of other tests” before considering further steps.

“To be 100% sure of the effectiveness of a drug, larger randomized controlled trial results are needed ” of what has been done so far, he told the news agency AFP Professor Kim Woo-joo, Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Korea University Hospital in Seoul.

The controversial antiparasitic drug does not shorten recovery time in people with mild cases of the disease, according to a randomized controlled trial published a few days ago in the prestigious scientific journal JAMA.

“Ivermectin is currently widely used”He warned Medina Eduardo Lopez, doctor and researcher of Pediatric Infectious Disease Center in Cali, Colombia, who led the new trial. “In many countries in the Americas and in other parts of the world, it is part of the national COVID-19 treatment guidelines.”

In the new study, Medina of Lopez and his colleagues randomly assigned more than 400 people who had recently developed mild symptoms of COVID-19 to take a five-day regimen of ivermectin or a placebo. They found that symptoms of the coronavirus lasted about 10 days in people who received the drug, compared to 12 days for those who received the placebo, a statistically insignificant difference.

“It is important to remember that ivermectin is not a harmless medicine and even in therapeutic doses it can cause side effects which, although mostly mild, can sometimes be serious.. As recommended by the Argentine Society of Infectology (SADI), Ivermectin should not be used for the treatment and / or prophylaxis of SARS-CoV-2, outside of well-designed studies. duly registered, and that they are ethically acceptable ”, declared the infectologist consulted by this means Lautaro de Vedia, former president of the institution.

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