Harapan health experts warn against pushing ivermectin before clinical trial results

Three Pakatan Harapan health experts have warned that the approval of any Covid-19 treatment, especially ivermectin, has to be based on science and data.

Former health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye and Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii also cited a recent study published yesterday by Cochrane, which showed strong evidence that ivermectin should not be used for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19, except in the context of clinical studies.

This comes after a number of MPs from the same coalition including R Sivarasa, Khalid Samad and Mohamad Sabu pressured Health Minister Dr Adham Baba over whether the government would look into ivermectin as a possible treatment option for Covid-19 patients.

Sivarasa even called on the Healthy Ministry to approve the off-label use of ivermectin for medical doctors to treat patients, instead of allowing its off-label use in clinical trials only.

Dzulkefly, Lee and Yii said that any such treatment must also go through specific clinical trials conducted under the principle of “evidence-based medicine”.

“This includes the approval of ivermectin for the treatment of Covid-19 which should be based on data collected through randomised clinical trials conducted by the Health Ministry and around the world,” added the trio.

They also cited a systematic review published in the British Journal of Medicine that stated that all data up to March 1 had found evidence on the benefits of ivermectin was of “very low certainty” due to the lack of methodology and small sample size of the studies involved.

“We must examine the data that has been released, including the results of clinical trials by the Health Ministry which are expected to be completed in September,” said the three MPs who called on Malaysians to be confident in approved Covid-19 vaccines which have reduced infection and mortality rates in Labuan recently.

Unproven claims

In May, the Health Ministry had announced plans to carry out randomised clinical trials to see if ivermectin can be used to treat Covid-19, following unproven claims regarding its use as a preventive drug for the disease.

Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug mostly used in veterinary medicine, especially in treating worm infestations.

Yesterday, the Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) and the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) called for an end to the illegal sales of ivermectin.

The groups expressed concern that many Malaysians are illegally sourcing the drugs after hearing of its supposed efficacy against Covid-19.

Ivermectin has not been registered for the prevention or treatment of Covid-19, and can only be used in clinical trials that are now taking place in 12 hospitals in Malaysia.

Anyone caught selling the anti-parasitic drug as treatment and prevention of Covid-19 can be fined between RM25,000 and RM50,000.

The clinical trial results are expected to be ready in September.

It will involve 500 high-risk Covid-19 patients who are still in the initial phases of infection, to see if fewer patients would progress to severe disease or die compared to those who only received standard hospital care.

Previous studies on ivermectin were inconclusive and yield mixed results.

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