Ivermectin and COVID-19: Study Published In Nature Journal Suggest That Ivermectin Could Be A Complementary Antiviral Drug To Help Treat COVID-19
Ivermectin and COVID-19: Despite initial molecular docking studies and vitro studies showing a potential of using Ivermectin to treat COVID-19, there has only been a few clinical trials and even then despite having positive results, not much is talked about Ivermectin as its basically a drug whose patent has lapsed and hence it is not profitable for many pharmaceutical giants to promote it. To also add to the reluctance to promote its use is the fact that only a few companies have the means to manufacture it as the manufacturing techniques are more complicated than that of other drugs and so is the procurement of it raw materials.
Most pharmaceutical giants prefer to promote more expensive drugs and most clinical trials need funding from these pharmaceutical giants either directly or indirectly. It should be note that many government agencies in various countries are intertwined with these pharmaceutical companies indirectly and even many medical journals and medical news sites survive on funding from these pharma giants. (Thailand Medical News is the only medical news site that is self-funded (but struggling) and does not receive any funding or revenue from any of these pharma giants and we also refuse ads from them and also from any government agencies that are influenced from these pharma giants. Readers should note that most of the medical news and info sites are sustained by government grants that are actually donated by these pharma giants.)
There has been a two ‘negative’ online articles about it use, one was that the amount needed based on merely extrapolating the dosing amounts used in a vitro study to that for a human would be extremely high and toxic but this was later confirmed to be wrong as the pharmacokinetic aspects of the drug was not taken into account.
The second controversy was based on the results of one clinical trial study that was later turned out to be faked by a doctor called Amit Patel from Surgispheres in the US who was also involved in the fake hydroxychloroquine study saga.
However, the drug is being used in many countries including India, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt etc to treat COVID-19 with positive results. It is a slightly tricky manner as doctors do have a right to prescribe the drug for use as its already an approved drug and the right to use whatever drugs that they, the doctors deem fit according to the situation though officially Ivermectin is not approved for any use to treat COVID-19.
In the new study published in the nature journal: The Journal Of Antibiotics, the authors advocate that the drug be tested in further clinical trials.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41429-020-0336-z
Though the researchers of this study only conducted vitro studies to show the efficacy of the drug, unlike the vitro study conducted by Monash University, in this study, Vero/hSLAM cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 cornavirus was used.
The researchers used 5 µM of ivermectin in 48 hours, and a 5000-fold reduction in viral RNA compared with control was found. The results showed that treatment with ivermectin effectively kills almost all viral particles within 48 hours.
In study with humans with Zika virus, the researchers found that the drug could cross the intestinal epithelial barrier after
oral administration and reach a suitable concentration in the blood, while drug toxicity was reduced in epithelial cells and no liver toxicity was seen.
The published study is also interesting as it shows results of ivermectin being used to treat other RNA and DNA virus infections in vivo and demonstrates the pharmacokinetics and the safe levels of toxicity of the drug.
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Ivermectin and COVID-19, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-drugs-ivermectin-reduces-mortality-rates-in-hospitalized-covid-19-patients-in-a-cohort-clinical-study-conducted-in-south-florida
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-published-in-the-american-journal-of-tropical-medicine-advocates-further-research-into-ivermectin-for-covid-19-treatment-as-it-could-emerge-as-a
