June 25, 2021 3:55 PM
PETALING JAYA: Hospitals are allowed to apply to the Drug Control Authority to use Ivermectin for off-label use including treating Covid-19 patients, the health ministry said.
“Like any other medicine, including Lopinavir and Kitonavir, if there is a strong indication that it can be used, hospitals can apply to the Drug Control Authority for off-label use,” the ministry said. The Drug Control Authority is an agency under the health ministry.
But the use of off-label medication, the ministry said, must be done in a monitored environment. Off-label use is a term to describe a medical drug that is used for a different purpose than the one it was originally meant for.
The ministry said this in response to a demand by a private doctor asking a hospital in the Klang Valley to reveal if it had used the controversial drug to treat any Covid-19 patient.
Dr Amir Farid Isahak said based on the discharge notes he had obtained from a “close family friend”, the hospital in question had used Ivermectin, which is currently not recognised by the health ministry, for Covid-19 treatment of a patient.
Amir, whose clinic was recently raided by authorities for supplying the anti-parasitic drug, said the patient was a Category 5 case. He also claimed that the patient was not informed by any doctor or medical staff that Ivermectin would be used.
In early June, the health ministry and its Institute for Clinical Research began clinical trials to study the effects and effectiveness of Ivermectin to treat high-risk Covid-19 patients in 12 government hospitals.
“If it was given as part of a study, the patient would have been informed,” Amir told FMT.
Doctors, he added, need not inform patients if they were administering approved drugs at Covid-19 wards.
Amir said the studies conducted by the health ministry were to see if Ivermectin was effective in preventing Covid-19 cases in Category 2 and 3 from progressing to Category 4 and 5.
“But they were treating my friend with Ivermectin at a late stage.”
Amir went on to say that proponents of the drug have maintained that Ivermectin is best used as a prevention and also for early treatment.
Ivermectin has attracted international attention following several case studies and clinical trials that showed promising results in treating Covid-19, but neither the FDA nor the World Health Organization has recommended it for use outside of such trials.
The health ministry maintains that there are no scientific studies to prove it is effective.
