MedPage Today reported, “There were no differences in relief from mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms for patients on ivermectin versus placebo, according to the ongoing ACTIV-6 trial.”

MedPage Today explained, “Among >1,000 vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, the median time to recovery was 12 days for those in the ivermectin group and 13 days in the placebo group, reported Matthew McCarthy, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, at IDWeek.” He noted that the current trial was conducted during Delta and Omicron variant surges in the country (June 23, 2021, through Feb. 4, 2022).

“McCarthy said during the presentation that treatment with two other repurposed agents – the antidepressant fluvoxamine (Luvox) and the inhaled steroid fluticasone – did not offer significantly better outcomes than placebo.

“We observed no significant differences in relief of mild-to-moderate symptoms between participants taking ivermectin, fluticasone, or fluvoxamine and participants taking placebo. There was no difference observed in the number of hospitalizations or deaths between patients taking ivermectin, fluticasone, or fluvoxamine and participants taking placebo. There were no safety concerns identified in any arm,” he stated.

“These results are consistent with what we have seen in other trials with these agents,” said IDWeek session co-moderator Adarsh Bhimraj, MD, of Houston Methodist. “This is a huge platform trial,” he told MedPage Today. “Its strength is in the numbers of patients included, and that it was conducted later in the pandemic which is more relevant to us now, and it is also concordant with other studies.”

Please note that presentations at medical meetings are usually evaluated and selected by a committee of experts but have not generally undergone the same peer review process required for publication in a scientific journal. As such, the findings presented should be considered preliminary until a peer-reviewed publication is available.

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