Image Credit : Hindustan Times
On Wednesday, University of Oxford disclosed that it was testing an anti-parasitic drug ‘ivermectin’ as a probable treatment for COVID 19. The test was conducted as a part of a British government backed study that looks forward to aid COVID 19 recoveries in non-hospital settings.
The university claimed that test based on ‘ivermectin’ derived a reduction of virus replication in laboratories studies. It further stated that a small pilot exhibited giving the drug early will allow reduction in viral load and duration of the symptoms in some COVID patients with mild COVID 19.
Dubbed PRINCIPLE, the British study held in January revealed that antibiotics namely azithromycin and doxycycline were almost ineffective in the early stages of COVID 19
On the other hand, World Health Organization and European and US regulators have rejected the use of ‘ivermectin’ in COVID 19 patients. However, this anti-parasitic drug is in use to treat COVID 19 in India and some other countries.
Chris Butler, co-lead investigator of the trial expressed, “By including ivermectin in a large scale trial like PRINCIPLE, we hope to generate robust evidence to determine how effective the treatment is against COVID 19, and whether there are benefits or harms associated with its use.”
The university further informed the people with a severe liver conditions and those who are on blood-thinning medication warfarin or involved in any other treatments known to interact with ivermectin will be eliminated from the trial.
The university also affirmed that Ivermectin is the seventh treatment to be explored in the trial. Furthermore, it stated the it is being evaluated adjacent to antiviral drug favipiravir.