Kowa Co Ltd. has announced that their anti-parasite drug, Ivermectin, demonstrated an antiviral effect against new variants of the coronavirus.
The company has generated some controversy, due to a previous news story that stated that the drug was “effective against omicron”, despite this not being fully tested in clinical trials. The story came from clinical trials run by Oxford University, which did report reduced viral load in laboratory studies.
Clinical research is ongoing, but as of yet the FDA, WHO, and EU drug regulators have not approved the use of the drug for the treatment of Covid-19.
Kowa has been working on the development of the drug alongside Tokyo’s Kitasato University, and research has largely involved joint non-clinical research.
Ivermectin has come under fire before when it was mentioned by Joe Rogan, a vaccine skeptic who claimed he used the drug instead of getting the vaccines.
The drug has shown promise at this stage in test-tube studies of its antiviral properties, but Merck, the producers of the drug, warn that there is a lack of scientific evidence to support ivermectin’s therapeutic effects.
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