RALEIGH, N.C. — Ivermectin does not reduce the length of COVID-19 symptoms or hospitalizations, a large clinical trial headed by Duke researchers suggests.
The research was posted online Sunday, but has not yet been reviewed by a scientific journal. This is the largest randomized trial to evaluate ivermectin’s effectiveness for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, enrolling more than 1,500 people from across the country.
The results are in line with a growing body of research that suggests ivermectin — a drug hailed as a miracle cure despite warnings from the medical establishment — is not an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Another large, randomized clinical trial published last month similarly found that ivermectin did not lower the risk of hospitalization for Brazilian participants. Dr. Adrian Hernandez, executive director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute and leader of the study, said so far there is no strong evidence to support the use of the controversial drug.
“There does not appear to be a role for ivermectin outside of a clinical trial setting, especially considering other available options with proven reduction in hospitalizations and death,” Hernandez said in a statement.
About half of participants who signed up to participate after testing positive for COVID-19 were mailed a three-day supply of ivermectin pills. The other half were given placebos, tablets with no active ingredients that are used to ensure the effects are caused by the medication and not just the act of taking pills.
They then answered daily questionnaires that allowed researchers to track their symptoms and side effects.
On average, participants given ivermectin felt sick for 10.96 days while those given the placebo felt sick for 11.45 days. The 12-hour difference was not deemed to be statistically significant.
The research is a product of a nationwide group of studies launched by the National Institutes of Health to see whether medications approved to treat other conditions could help COVID-19 patients.
Ivermectin, which has been used to kill parasites in humans and animals, was chosen to be part of the study because of its proven safety and some preliminary experiments that suggested it could stop the virus in a Petri dish.
Hernandez said the public’s interest in the potential treatment also motivated the group to include ivermectin as one of the three drugs they tested.
Over the last two years, several state poison control centers have reported a surge in calls from people who have overdosed on ivermectin formulated for animals.
“This is important data to have out there since there is still use of ivermectin,” he said.
The researchers found that ivermectin provided a benefit for participants with severe symptoms. However, the number of participants with severe symptoms was so small that those results are not necessarily significant.
Dr. Regina Rabinovich, a global health researcher at Harvard who was not involved with this study, said the trial further emphasized the need to increase access to drugs with proven benefits.
While the trial’s size was robust and accounted for factors like vaccination status and risk factors, she noted that the average participant started taking their medication six days into their illness, a late start compared to similar antiviral trials.
Hernandez said there was not a significant difference in effectiveness between participants who started taking the medication earlier and those who took it later in their illness.
More trials are needed to determine whether ivermectin is helpful in higher doses or over longer periods of time, he said.
Hernandez said results from the next leg of the study, which will give participants a dose of ivermectin 1.5 times higher for twice the amount of time, will likely become available later this summer.
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