THE Food and Drug Administration yesterday said it has granted a sixth private hospital a compassionate special permit (CSP) to use the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as COVID-19 treatment to a private hospital.
“They are private hospitals and are not only in Metro Manila as some are in the provinces,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo appealed said in a forum.
He still declined to identify the hospitals, noting privacy issues.
“But the hospitals given CSPs can freely identify themselves. We are not stopping them,” he said.
Domingo also appealed to the public to stop politicizing the issue on whether ivermectin should be used against COVID-19 or not. “It should not be a political thing. Medicine is very apolitical.”
He said it would be best if everyone will just let the medical experts do what they need to do in assessing the safety and efficacy of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.
“We keep asking everybody to keep our heads cool and let’s look at the science and what the experts are saying,” he said.
“What I’m asking is let us listen to our experts, to those who study it, those who treat our patients. Let us wait until the science is completed before we make conclusions,” added Domingo.
And so far, he reiterated, there is no evidence yet to prove that ivermectin is effective in treating COVID-19.
“All our experts are saying that we cannot recommend ivermectin yet because the evidence isn’t clear yet,” he said.
“For prophylaxis, there is none, there is really no evidence it can be used as a prophylactic,” he added.
Last week, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor and deputy speaker Rodante Marcoleta (PL, Sagip) launched the distribution of ivermectin capsules in Quezon City.
Marcoleta has challenged the FDA and Department of Health to explain the “medical justification” for allowing the use of remdesivir, which he said is an expensive anti-viral drug, on COVID patients.
The FDA this week started launched an investigation to determine if there were violations in the event, particularly in the manufacture and dispensing of ivermectin products.
Asked if the FDA can impose penalties on the two lawmakers in the event that they are found liable, Domingo said, “Technically, we are monitoring the doctors, pharmacists, and the drug suppliers. They (congressmen) are from a different branch of government already.”
The Department of Science and Technology, on the order of President Duterte, is set to conduct clinical trials on ivermectin.
The Philippine Medical Association reminded the public against the use of any kind of drugs without FDA approval.
PMA president Dr. Benito Atienza also cautioned physicians against prescribing ivermectin, saying only those from the hospitals givens CSPs are allowed to prescribe ivermectin for patients who are confined in the same hospitals.
Atienza reiterated the FDA, DOH and the World Health Organization have all said the use of Ivermectin as “treatment of COVID-19 patients is inconclusive.” — With Jocelyn Montemayor
