Ivermectin of no benefit in mild-to-moderate COVID-19

The use of ivermectin in the treatment of outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 falls short of improving time to recovery when compared with placebo, a study has shown.

The study used data from ACTIV-6 (an ongoing, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial) and included 1,800 COVID-19 patients (mean age 48 years, 58.6 percent female, 47.3 percent received at least two doses of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine) who had at least two symptoms of acute infection for 7 days or less.

Of the 1,591 patients who completed the trial, 817 had been randomly assigned to receive ivermectin 400 μg/kg daily for 3 days and 774 to receive placebo.  

The primary outcome of time to sustained recovery (defined as at least 3 consecutive days without symptoms) was similar in the ivermectin and placebo groups (hazard ratio [HR], 1.07, 95 percent credible interval [CrI], 0.96–1.17; p=0.91). The median time to recovery was 12 days and 13 days in the respective groups.

There were 10 cases of hospitalizations or deaths in the ivermectin group and nine in the placebo group (1.2 percent for both; HR, 1.1, 95 percent CrI, 0.4–2.6).

COVID-19 pneumonia was the most common serious adverse event, reported in five patients on ivermectin and seven on placebo. This was followed by venous thromboembolism (ivermectin, n=1; placebo, n=5).

The present data do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.