COVID-19 Treatment: This FDA-Approved Anti-Parasitic Drug Could Stop Coronavirus Growth Within 2 Days

Australian scientists have shown that a single dose of the FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug can prevent the growth of the deadly novel coronavirus in cell culture.

Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug was previously found to be very effective against a broad range of viruses including HIV, dengue, influenza and the Zika. But a recent study conducted by the experts at Monash University has demonstrated that a single dose of Ivermectin could potentially inhibit the growth of the deadly coronavirus in cell culture within just 48 hours.

“We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it. Ivermectin is very widely used and seen as a safe drug. We need to figure out now whether the dosage you can use it in humans will be effective — that’s the next step,” Futurism quoted Kylie Wagstaff, lead researcher and co-author of the study published in Antiviral Research.

Though the drug’s mechanism remains unknown, the scientists opined that, based on its action in other viruses, Ivermectin might work to prevent the virus from ‘dampening down’ the host cell’s ability to clear it.

"As the virologist who was part of the team who were first to isolate and share SARS-COV2 outside of China in January 2020, I am excited about the prospect of Ivermectin being used as a potential drug against COVID-19," the First Post quoted Leon Caly, the study’s co-author from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. “In times when we're having a global pandemic and there isn't an approved treatment, if we had a compound that was already available around the world then that might help people sooner,” she added.

Dr. Wagstaff, along with Profession David Jans, made a breakthrough finding on the same drug in 2012 when she identified the drug and its antiviral activity. The team has been studying the drug for more than a decade with several other viruses. They have been investigating if the drug worked on the SARS-CoV-2 virus as soon as the pandemic started. The researchers made it clear that the use of this FDA-approved anti-parasitic drug depends on pre-clinical testing as well as clinical trials.