Researchers testing anti-parasitic drug as COVID-19 treatment

The University of Oxford announced Wednesday that researchers are testing an anti-parasitic drug as a COVID-19 treatment.

In a statement, Oxford shared that the new trial will include the drug ivermectin, which it said has shown promising results as a potential treatment for coronavirus patients.

“Ivermectin is readily available globally, has been in wide use for many other infectious conditions so it’s a well-known medicine with a good safety profile, and because of the early promising results in some studies it is already being widely used to treat COVID-19 in several countries,” Oxford professor Chris Butler said in a statement.

“We hope to generate robust evidence to determine how effective the treatment is against COVID-19, and whether there are benefits or harms associated with its use,” he added.

The large-scale trial will examine the treatments of people who are more at risk of serious illness from COVID-19. The anti-parasitic drug is the seventh treatment to be tested in the trial.

The United Kingdom has been struggling to contain a strain of COVID-19 known as the delta variant, particularly in communities where vaccination rates are low.