2 more hospitals get compassionate permit for ivermectin use vs. COVID-19 —FDA

Two more hospitals have been granted compassionate special permit (CSP) for the use of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin on COVID-19 patients, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.

There are now five hospitals that have been issued a CSP for ivermectin, FDA chief Eric Domingo confirmed to GMA News Online.

Domingo previously made clear that a CSP is not a marketing authorization, meaning ivermectin cannot be sold commercially yet. 

A CSP is also not an FDA endorsement of a drug’s quality and efficacy.

“[The] concept is you have a patient who is suffering and you don’t have anything else to give the patient, and there is a drug that is available somewhere else and you ask for permission to use this investigational drug on this patient,” Domingo said in an interview on ANC.

“On those grounds, we grant it because we do accept that it is an investigational drug for COVID-19,” he added.

The FDA, Department of Health, and World Health Organization have all said that current evidence does not support the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. 

READ: What the WHO, US FDA, other health agencies say about ivermectin for COVID-19

Last week, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered health and science agencies to hold a clinical trial for the antiparasitic drug in the Philippines. 

The study is expected to start by the end of May, according to the Department of Science and Technology. —KBK, GMA News