On Tuesday, one its co-founders, Pierre Kory, appeared before a US Senate Homeland Security and governmental affairs committee, saying there was more evidence.

He reminded the hearing on Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part of a COVID-19 Solution that in May, against widespread opposition, he had recommended corticosteroids be used to treat COVID-19.

That turned out to be a lifesaving recommendation," Associate Professor Kory told the hearing. "I am here today with a new recommendation.

He said four large randomised controlled trials involving more than 1500 patients had demonstrated Ivermectins effectiveness as a safe prophylactic agent in COVID 19, when used in early outpatient treatment.

He noted discoveries related to Invermectin had won two researchers the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015.

All I ask is for the National Institutes of Health to review our data, he said.

At an alliance press conference in the US last week, Professor Kory said that as vaccines would not be distributed fast enough to save lives, something was needed in the interim.

COVID-19 is a runaway train barrelling down the tracks, and if youre on those tracks, Ivermectin can help lift you out of harms way," he said.

Paul Marik, co-founder of the alliance, said Ivemectin had been used safely by 3.7 billion people.

It had high activity fighting the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as the inflammation produced in all stages of COVID-19.

It works pre-and post-exposure, the early symptoms phase and late-stage disease," Professor Marik said.

Australia was first to identify the drug's potential against COVID-19, says Stephen Turner, head of the Department of Microbiology at Monash. Monash

In April, the Monash and Doherty study indicated Ivermectin resulted in the loss of nearly all viral material within 48 hours, with no toxicity, in non-human cells.

But in May, another study found the design of this study made it difficult to extrapolate to humans.

Ivermectin works by interfering with the life cycle of pathogens, disrupting some basic cell biology. So it needs to be used at low enough doses to minimise side effects in patients, says Stephen Turner, head of the Department of Microbiology at Monash.

Now the researchers are looking at safe dosing that could still get the protective effect while limiting side effects. Their trials are under way and, until they report, the jury is still out.

Allen Cheng, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at Monash and a member of Australias National COVID Evidence Taskforce, which keeps an eye on all the available evidence, agrees the jury is still out.

He says the taskforce currently recommends against the use of Ivermectin as treatment outside of trials and has no recommendation for its use in prevention.

The taskforce has a list of almost 30 other treatments that have not been found to work, which reinforces that treatments need to be tested rigorously in clinical trials," Professor Cheng says.

"Obviously, evidence is constantly changing, so if evidence emerges that Ivermectin (or any other treatment) works, these recommendations would change.

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Coronavirus: The 40-year-old drug that could stop people getting sick from COVID-19 - The Australian Financial Review