Ivermectin clinical trial results out early next year

The results of the country’s clinical trial on the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 patients may be known by the early part of 2022, said Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.

The research protocol for the trial of the antiparasitic drug, which President Duterte ordered last month, is already being drafted by the research team and would be submitted for approval to the Department of Science and Technology and the Food and Drug Administration, Montoya said.

The protocol would cover the location of the trial, its duration, and the covered population.

“The clinical trial may be concluded at the end of the year, but the data and results of the trial would have to be studied, so we expect the results and analysis to come out in the first quarter of next year, around January,” Montoya said at an online press briefing.

He said the completion of the study might be fast-tracked if a lot of volunteers would be recruited.

The trial would focus on asymptomatic patients and those with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19, he said.

This is because previous clinical trials on ivermectin had not focused on these kinds of patients, he said.

“This is where the evidence is lacking, the nonsevere or the mild and moderate cases and asymptomatic. This will allow us to see if it will really help this population,” he said.

Another reason is that most of the COVID-19 cases in the country are nonsevere, he said. INQ