Ivermectin fails another COVID trial as study links use to GOP politics

The antiparasitic drug ivermectin failed to treat COVID-19 in a randomized clinical trial, but it is still popular thanks to Republican politics. Two studies published Friday show that.

The studies raise more concerns for the use of ivermectin against the pandemic virus, as well as the reasons behind its use, which appear politically motivated.

The Harvard researchers behind one of the studies concluded that political affiliation should not be a factor in clinical treatment decisions.

Political sway

The study began when researchers led by Harvard health policy researcher Michael Barnett took note of the sharp increase in prescriptions for ivermectin during the pandemic despite evidence that the drug is ineffective at treating COVID-19. The researchers set out to see if prescription levels could be linked with county-level political voting patterns in the 2020 US presidential election. For comparison, they also looked at the prescribing patterns for another antiparasitic drug called albendazole as well as the immunosuppressive drug methotrexate.

Barnett and colleagues looked at medical claims from more than 18 million adults in the US from January to December 2020. The first quartile had the lowest share of Republican votes and the fourth had the highest, based on their share of Republican votes.

In December 2020, the overall ivermectin prescriber increased by over a hundred percent. The counties with the highest shares of Republican votes had the highest levels of ivermectin prescriptions. The level of ivermectin prescribing is higher in counties with a higher share of Republican votes.

The Food and Drug administration revoked an emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine in March 2020. In the second half of 2020, the use of the drug increased, with the highest prescribers in counties with the highest share of Republican votes. There were no politically linked trends or changes in prescription levels for the two drugs.

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Barnett and his colleagues concluded that their findings were consistent with the hypothesis that the US may have influenced the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine during the COVID-19 epidemic. The findings add context to the continued use of ivermectin for COVID-19, even as evidence continues to mount finding that the drug is ineffective and potentially dangerous.

Failed trial

The results of a randomized clinical trial involving 490 high-risk COVID-19 patients were reported by researchers in Malaysia. In the trial, ivermectin failed to prevent severe disease in high-risk patients. It failed to make any statistically significant difference in a variety of COVID-19 outcomes, including timing of disease progression, length of hospital stay, need for mechanical ventilation, and death.

People at risk of disease progression are either referred to the hospital or admitted to a COVID-19 quark center in Malaysia if they report a case of COVID-19. It was easier to track trial participants. The people who were in the trial had at least one underlying medical condition. 490 patients were considered to have mild to moderate infections. 241 were randomly assigned to get oral ivermectin for five days, and 249 were randomly assigned to get standard care.

52 of the 241 patients who received ivermectin had progressed to severe disease, while 43 of the 249 patients who just received standard care progressed. There were no significant differences in other disease outcomes, but there were more side effects in the ivermectin group.

There were 44 patients who reported side effects, with 33 of them being in the ivermectin group. The most common side effect was diarrhea. Four of the cases of severe adverse reactions were in the ivermectin group. Two patients in the ivermectin group had heart attacks, one had severe anemia, and the other developed hypovolemic shock. The control group had one severe reaction.

Not the first time

Some early clinical work had suggested that ivermectin may be effective for treating COVID-19. The findings of the Malaysia trial are similar to two other randomized clinical trials. There was no benefit to using ivermectin to improve COVID-19 symptoms.

In their randomized clinical trial of high-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, ivermectin treatment did not prevent progression to severe disease. The findings of the study do not support the use of ivermectin for patients with COVID-19.