MANILA – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed the use of Ivermectin for humans as an anti-nematode.
This was after FDA director general Eric Domingo said on Friday that a local pharmaceutical company, Lloyd Laboratories, has obtained a certificate of product registration (CPR) for locally manufactured Ivermectin as an anti-nematode or roundworms.
“With this approval, Lloyd Laboratories’ Ivermectin can be purchased with a prescription,” Domingo said on Friday and clarified that it is still not registered for the prevention or treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
FDA has yet to grant an emergency use authorization for Ivermectin although six hospitals were allowed to use it for COVID patients under its special compassionate special permit.
Deputy speaker Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon party-list – one of the lawmakers who staunchly advocated for the use of Ivermectin as COVID-19 treatment – hailed the FDA’s registration of the drug.
“I would like to personally thank FDA director general Eric Domingo for being open to our suggestions, and for taking the necessary steps to ensure that this in-demand drug now has clear regulation and quality-control standards behind it,” Dy said.
Ivermectin became controversial in the Philippines after claims sprouted that it can cure or prevent COVID-19. However, the Health department and the FDA pointed out that the current evidence does not support the use of the anti-parasitic drug as a cure for the virus./PN
