Profiteering on ivermectin continues online despite recent crackdown

 

Online sellers in Malaysia peddling drugs containing ivermectin as an active ingredient are still selling unsanctioned imports of the product for large profits despite a recent crackdown.

The drug, touted by some as a “miracle drug against Covid-19” is only licensed in Malaysia for veterinary use, while results for the Health Ministry’s clinical trial for it is due in September.

As late as last month, the drug was widely available on popular e-commerce platforms, including those for human use illicitly imported from countries like India.

A crackdown in May on online sales of unregistered pharmaceuticals - not just ivermectin - have led to dozens of such offerings taken down from e-commerce platforms.

However, this has not stopped some sellers from continuing to peddle the tablets at relatively high prices.

A check by Malaysiakini found at least one seller advertising the drug for RM7.50 per tablet. This is close to five times the retail price of the product sold in India, where it was imported from.

The retail price marked on the foil states 115 Indian Rupees for a packet of four, but an online seller in Malaysia is selling it for five times the price.

According to the photos shown to the seller to potential customers, the retail price on the foil packaging of the products is 115 Indian Rupees for a packet of four, or RM1.60 per tablet.

The seller also assures potential customers that it is for human use and provides an advisory for usage against Covid-19 from the Frontline Critical Care Alliance, a group of scientists pushing for the use of ivermectin against Covid-19.

The same seller had sold ivermectin tablets under a different listing, but that listing is no longer available. Besides ivermectin, the online store sells health supplements and foods.

Not for patients of heart, kidney and liver illnesses

Prior to the crackdown, online sellers in Malaysia were advertising ivermectin at as high as RM15 per tablet, and sold the tablets in strips without any advisory pamphlets or authentication.

The sellers would name their online store to appear to be selling veterinary products, with one calling their store “Veterinary Clinic”.

Image used by online shops selling ivermectin online earlier this year. The listing has been removed from the e-commerce platform.

None of the stores warned of potential adverse effects of self-administering the drug, especially for those taking other medication, like blood thinners, or have other illnesses.

Verpin-12, a medication containing ivermectin which is unlicensed in Malaysia but sold by unauthorised sellers online, is not suitable for those with heart, kidney and liver disease.

It must also only be consumed on advice of a physician, and can cause various side effects like nausea, dizziness, fatigue, skin rash and shakiness.

Consuming drugs meant for veterinary use

Since the crackdown, even ivermectin sold for animals are no longer easily available on popular e-commerce platforms.

While online stores clearly marked their products to be for animal use only, some reviewers who had purchased them said they had self-administered the drugs to their family members.

In one review at an online shop, a buyer said both she and her husband have consumed the drug meant for dogs.

A buyer in a review for ivermectin tablets for dogs said she and her husband have consumed it. The product is no longer available on the e-commerce platform.

The United States Food and Drug Administration warned against consuming veterinary drugs because drugs meant for animals may contain inactive ingredients which have not been studied to determine its safety in humans.

There is also concern of overdose as each species absorbs pharmaceuticals at a different rate. The Missouri Poison Centre warned that serious overdoses of ivermectin can result in seizures, coma, lung issues and heart problems.

The use of ivermectin for Covid-19 has been mired in controversy, with some proponents claiming a conspiracy against the drug to benefit pharmaceutical firms behind more lucrative vaccine deals.

Among others, proponents of ivermectin have also argued that the anti-parasitic drug has been safely used on humans for decades for other illnesses, and need not be subjected to further time-consuming trials while many lives are lost to Covid-19.

WHO advisory: Only use for Covid-19 in clinical trials

In March, the World Health Organisation said ivermectin should only be used for Covid-19 treatment within clinical trials.

The advisory was released after a group of clinical care experts and specialists reviewed 16 randomised controlled trials and found them to be poorly designed and conducted for answering a range of key clinical questions, such as mortality rate and hospital admission rates.

This is due to the small sizes and methodological limitations of available trial data, including a small number of events. There are also serious concerns that some of the methodological shortcomings could seriously bias the clinical trial results.

Nearly all well-informed patients would only want ivermectin within the context of a clinical trial and would otherwise favour the usual supportive care for Covid-19 patients instead, it said.

“The effects of ivermectin on mortality, mechanical ventilation, hospital admission, duration of hospitalisation and viral clearance remain uncertain because of very low certainty of evidence addressing each of these outcomes.

“Ivermectin may have little or no effect on time to clinical improvement (low certainty evidence).

“Ivermectin may increase the risk of severe adverse events leading to drug discontinuation (low certainty evidence),” the WHO said.

Even with ivermectin’s low cost and wide availability, the use of ivermectin cannot be justified outside of a clinical trial due to its “very uncertain” benefits and ongoing concerns of possible harm, it said, and ivermectin may divert attention from proven treatments such as corticosteroids for severe Covid-19 cases.

Among countries which have used ivermectin in treating Covid-19 is India, where cases have reduced after spiking earlier this year.

However, ivermectin was only one of several drugs used in Indian hospitals treating Covid-19, making it difficult to conclude if it had directly contributed to recovery.

On June 7, India’s Health Ministry dropped various treatments including ivermectin, azithromycin, doxycycline, zinc, favipiravir and plasma therapy from its guidelines for Covid-19.

On Wednesday, a GP clinic in Kuala Lumpur was raided by the Health Ministry for offering ivermectin to its patients.

The doctor, a gynaecologist who has now switched to practicing “anti-aging, aesthetics and holistic integrative medicine”, said he was acting out of his conscience to try to save lives. - Mkini

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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