The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) may conduct a clinical trial on the use of Ivermectin as a treatment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) if it receives such request from the Department of Health (DOH) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said Monday, April 12, that the DOH and FDA have the final say on the matter, even as he maintained that there was no need to conduct such clinical trial in the country.

'Ngayon, kung sasabihan nila kami na gumawa kami ng clinical trials ay siguro gagawa kami ng clinical trials (Now, if they will ask us to conduct clinical trials, maybe we will conduct the clinical trials),” de la Peña said during the Laging Handa briefing on Monday.

He noted that there were almost 20 completed and 40 ongoing clinical trials around the world as reported in clinicaltrials.gov exploring the use of Ivermectin formulations against COVID-19.

"Pero sa aming assessment ngayon dahil nga sa ang dami-dami nang ginagawang clinical trials na mas ahead at ‘ika nga ay marami ng nakuhang data at nag-uumpisa nang mag-analyzed eh sundin na lang natin at abangan ang resulta (But, based on our assessment right now because there are many clinical trials being conducted, which are more advanced and they say, a lot of data has been gathered and they started analyzing them, let’s just wait for the results),”  he said.

The DOST chief noted that clinical trial projects will require a minimum of six months and can extend to years. 

"That is how long we have to wait to have results and conclusions,” he pointed out. 

"As most ongoing clinical trials have already been implemented since 2020, it would be appropriate to await the results of these studies that are already significantly advanced in terms of data collection and conducting interim analyses.”

READ: https://mb.com.ph/2021/04/09/no-need-to-conduct-ivermectin-clinical-trial-in-ph-dost-chief/