Ivermectin for Covid treatment is in doubt, but demand is soaring

Although there are general medical doubts about deworming drugs for livestock, some foreign manufacturers do not seem to care.
Before the pandemic, Taj Pharmaceuticals Ltd. shipped small amounts of ivermectin  for animals use. But in the past year, it has become a popular product for the Indian generic drug manufacturer: since July 2020, Taj Pharma has sold $5 million worth of human pills in India and overseas. For a small family business with an annual income of approximately $66 million, this is a fortune.
Sales of this medicine, which is mainly approved to treat diseases caused by livestock and human parasites, have surged around the world as anti-vaccine advocates and others touted it as a Covid-19 treatment. They claim that if only people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saw it with wide eyes, it could end the pandemic. “We work 24/7,” said Shantanu Kumar Singh, 30-year-old executive director of Taj Pharma. “Demand is high.”
The company has eight production facilities in India and is one of many pharmaceutical manufacturers-many of them in developing countries-seeking to profit from the sudden epidemic of ivermectin. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration The suggestion is not moved by it. Clinical studies have not yet shown conclusive evidence of the drug’s effectiveness against coronavirus infections. Manufacturers are not deterred, they have strengthened their sales promotion and increased production.
Ivermectin became the focus of attention last year after some preliminary studies showed that ivermectin is expected to be a potential treatment for Covid. After Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and other world leaders and podcasters such as Joe Rogan started taking ivermectin, doctors all over the world are under pressure to prescribe.
Since the original manufacturer Merck’s patent expired in 1996, small generic drug manufacturers such as the Taj Mahal have been put into production, and they have taken a place in the global supply. Merck is still selling ivermectin under the Stromectol brand, and the company warned in February that “there is no meaningful evidence” that it is effective against Covid.
However, all these suggestions have not stopped millions of Americans from obtaining prescriptions from like-minded doctors on telemedicine websites. In the seven days ending on August 13, the number of outpatient prescriptions soared more than 24 times from pre-pandemic levels, reaching 88,000 per week.
Ivermectin is commonly used to treat roundworm infections in humans and livestock. Its discoverers, William Campbell and Satoshi Omura, won the Nobel Prize in 2015. According to researchers at the University of Oxford, some studies have shown that the drug can reduce Covid’s viral load. However, according to a recent review by the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, which evaluates medical practice, many studies on the benefits of ivermectin for Covid patients are small and lack sufficient evidence.
Health officials warn that in some cases, even the wrong dose of the human version of the drug can cause nausea, dizziness, seizures, coma and death. Local media in Singapore reported in detail this month that a woman posted on Facebook saying how her mother avoided vaccination and took ivermectin. Under the influence of friends attending the church, she became seriously ill.
Despite safety issues and a series of poisonings, the drug is still popular among people who view the pandemic as a conspiracy. It has also become the drug of choice in poorer countries with difficult access to Covid treatment and lax regulations. Available over the counter, it was highly sought after during the delta wave in India.
Some drugmakers are sparking interest. Taj Pharma stated that it does not ship to the U.S. and that Ivermectin is not a large part of its business. It attracts believers and has publicized a common saying on social media that the vaccine industry is actively conspiring against the drug. The company’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended after using hashtags such as #ivermectinworks to promote the drug.
In Indonesia, the government initiated a clinical trial in June to test the effectiveness of ivermectin against Covid. In the same month, state-owned PT Indofarma began production of a general-purpose version. Since then, it has distributed more than 334,000 bottles of pills to pharmacies across the country. “We market ivermectin as the main function of an antiparasitic drug,” said Warjoko Sumedi, the company’s company secretary, adding that some published reports claim that the drug is effective against this disease. “It is the prerogative of the prescribing doctor to use it for other treatments,” he said.
So far, Indofarma’s ivermectin business is small, with the company’s total revenue of 1.7 trillion rupees ($120 million) last year. In the four months since the start of production, the drug has brought in revenue of 360 billion rupees. However, the company sees more potential and is preparing to launch its own Ivermectin brand called Ivercov 12 before the end of the year.
Last year, Brazilian manufacturer Vitamedic Industria Farmaceutica sold 470 million reais (85 million U.S. dollars) worth of ivermectin, up from 15.7 million reais in 2019. Director Vitamedic said in Jarlton that it spent 717,000 reais on advertising to promote ivermectin as an early treatment against Covid. . 11 In testimony to Brazilian lawmakers, investigating the government’s handling of the pandemic. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
In countries where there is a shortage of ivermectin for human use or people cannot get a prescription, some people are looking for veterinary variants that may pose a risk of serious side effects. Afrivet Business Management is a major animal medicine manufacturer in South Africa. The price of its ivermectin products in retail stores in the country has increased tenfold, reaching nearly 1,000 rand (US$66) per 10 ml. “It may work or it may not work,” said CEO Peter Oberem. “People are desperate.” The company imports the active ingredients of the drug from China, but it sometimes runs out of stock.
In September, the Medical Research Council of India removed the drug from its clinical guidelines for adult Covid management. Even so, many Indian companies-producing about a quarter of the world’s low-cost generic drugs-market ivermectin as a Covid drug, including the largest Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Emcure Pharmaceuticals, a company located in The drugmakers in Pune support Bain Capital. Bajaj Healthcare Ltd. stated in a document dated May 6 that it will launch a new Ivermectin brand, Ivejaj. The company’s co-managing director, Anil Jain, stated that the brand will help improve the health of Covid patients. Health status and provide them with “urgently needed and timely treatment options.” Spokespersons for Sun Pharma and Emcure declined to comment, while Bajaj Healthcare and Bain Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to Sheetal Sapale, Marketing President of Pharmasofttech AWACS Pvt., an Indian research company, the sales of ivermectin products in India tripled from the previous 12 months to 38.7 billion rupees (US$51 million) in the year ended in August. . “Many companies have entered the market to seize this opportunity and take full advantage of it,” she said. “As the incidence of Covid has dropped significantly, this may not be seen as a long-term trend.”
Carlos Chaccour, assistant research professor at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health, who has studied the effectiveness of ivermectin against malaria, said that although some companies are actively promoting the abuse of the drug, many companies remain silent . “Some people are fishing in wild rivers and use this situation to make some profit,” he said.
The Bulgarian drugmaker Huvepharma, which also has factories in France, Italy and the United States, did not sell ivermectin for human consumption in the country until January 15. At that time, it received government approval to register the drug, which was not used to treat Covid. , But used to treat strongyloidiasis. A rare infection caused by roundworms. Strongyloidiasis has not occurred in Bulgaria recently. Nonetheless, the approval helped the Sofia-based company deliver ivermectin to pharmacies, where people can buy it as an unauthorized Covid treatment with a doctor’s prescription. Huvepharma did not respond to a request for comment.
Maria Helen Grace Perez-Florentino, medical marketing and medical consultant of Dr. Zen’s Research, a Metro Manila marketing agency, said that even if the government discourages the use of ivermectin, drugmakers need to admit that some doctors will reuse it in unauthorized ways. Their products. Lloyd Group of Cos., the company began to distribute locally produced ivermectin in May.
Dr. Zen’s hosted two online conferences on the drug for Filipino doctors and invited speakers from abroad to provide information on dosage and side effects. Perez-Florentino said this is very practical. “We talk to doctors who are willing to use ivermectin,” she said. “We understand the product knowledge, its side effects, and the appropriate dosage. We inform them.”
Like Merck, some manufacturers of the drug have been warning about the abuse of ivermectin. These include Bimeda Holdings in Ireland, Durvet in Missouri and Boehringer Ingelheim in Germany. But other companies, such as Taj Mahal Pharmaceuticals, did not hesitate to establish a link between ivermectin and Covid, which has published articles promoting the drug on its website. Singh of Taj Pharma said the company is responsible. “We do not claim that the drug has any effect on Covid,” Singh said. “We really don’t know what will work.”
This uncertainty has not stopped the company from peddling the drug on Twitter again, and its account has been restored. A tweet on October 9 promoted its TajSafe Kit, ivermectin pills, packaged with zinc acetate and doxycycline, and labeled #Covidmeds. — Read the next article with Daniel Carvalho, Fathiya Dahrul, Slav Okov, Ian Sayson, Antony Sguazzin, Janice Kew and Cynthia Koons: Homeopathy does not work. So why do so many Germans believe it?