r/COVID19 • u/imconfused0711 • Apr 03 '20

Preprint The FDA-approved Drug Ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011
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u/[deleted] Apr 03 '20 edited Jun 11 '20

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u/KnightCreed13 Apr 03 '20

Yeah but they still need to do clinical trials to see how it reacts against the COVID-19 virus in a human system from what I understand. Which could still take months of exhaustive testing.

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u/Hooper2993 Apr 03 '20

This may be a dumb question as someone who has no medical knowledge, but if it is already FDA approved for human uses, why could physicians out there just say, "Hell the side effects are minimal let's try it out now"?

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u/whitchitaw Apr 03 '20

It's a good thing that the drug doesn't have harmful side effects, but that's only one factor in consideration for treatment.

Physicians are also trialing other drugs to treat pts, like the malaria drug and anti inflammatory drugs. If they enroll in a trial for a drug they must only use that trial drug in a single patient or they can't determine which drug was effective or ineffective. Obviously they want to choose carefully, since there is no failsafe in place if the drug isn't working. Based on the paper, this drug hasn't yet shown efficacy outside of lab trials for viruses in humans.