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Ivermectin: enigmatic multifaceted ‘wonder’ drug continues to surprise and exceed expectations

Perhaps more than any other drug, ivermectin is a drug for the world’s poor. For most of this century, some 250 million people have been taking it annually to combat two of the world’s most devastating, disfiguring, debilitating and stigma-inducing diseases, Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic filariasis. Most of the recipients live in remote, rural, desperately under-resourced communities in developing countries and have virtually no access to even the most rudimentary of medical interventions. Moreover, all the treatments have been made available free of charge thanks to the unprecedented drug donation program.

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 Ivermectin is a Nobel Prize-winning wonder drug – but not for COVID-19

Although ivermectin has been a game-changer for people with certain infectious diseases, it isn’t going to save patients from COVID-19 infection. In fact, it could cost them their lives.

Articles of Interest

How ivermectin became the new focus of the anti-vaccine movement

How did a science question about the efficacy of an inexpensive, everyday drug become an inflamed public morality debate — where people on both sides believe the wrong position could cost lives? It's a tale that spans science and politics, pitting health officials against celebrities and communal responsibilities against individual rights.

Ivermectin may help covid-19 patients—but only those with worms

An anti-parasitic drug, touted as a miracle cure, helped people get better, but only in places with lots of parasites.

Ivermectin: why a potential COVID treatment isn’t recommended for use

While some other studies did appear to show benefits of ivermectin, many did not. These were summarised by the National Institutes of Health, showing severe limitations arising from small sample sizes and problems with study design.

Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to 3 Scientists for Parasite-Fighting Therapies

Dr. Campbell and Dr. Omura developed Avermectin, the parent of Ivermectin, a medicine that has nearly eradicated river blindness and radically reduced the incidence of filariasis, which can cause the disfiguring swelling of the lymph system in the legs and lower body known as elephantiasis.

Scabies Means Misery. This Pill Can End It.

Burrowing skin mites drive victims mad with itching, but distribution of a few pills can drive the infestation from entire communities.

The Real Scandal About Ivermectin

Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, and a very good one. If you are infected with the roundworms that cause river blindness or the parasitic mites that cause scabies, it is wonderfully effective. It is cheap; it is accessible; and its discoverers won the Nobel Prize in 2015. It has also been widely promoted as a coronavirus prophylactic and treatment.

What's Up With Ivermectin?

The drug's two main discoverers and developers won the Nobel in 2015 for it, deservedly so, because it has been a tremendous force in the campaigns to eliminate untold amounts of human suffering in river blindness and filariasis. (Merck, I should note, has donated the drug for those purposes ever since the late 1980s).

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DrugBank

With the advent of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, ivermectin began garnering notoriety due to its off-label use for the prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19.

Ivermectin frenzy: the advocates, anti-vaxxers and telehealth companies driving demand

Health authorities have warned there’s no proof for Ivermectin’s value in treating Covid-19. Still groups are touting the drug as the way out of the pandemic.