Despite cautions from government agencies and health experts on its use for COVID-19, two congressmen said Tuesday, April 27, that they will set up an "Ivermectin Pan-three" to distribute the anti-parasitic drug to "those who are in dire need".
SAGIP Party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta and Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor announced in a joint statement that they will be putting up their own community pantry, but to give out free doses of ivermectin.
"After the inquiries conducted by two committees of the House of Representatives (Health and Good Government and Public Accountability) where both foreign and local experts were engaged on the potential use of Ivermectin, we have decisively come to a critical decision to distribute Ivermectin to those who are in dire need of this drug," Marcoleta and Defensor disclosed.
The two House members said this combines "both the sense of urgency and our inherent trait of community sharing" during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their project will be launched on Thursday, April 29, in Quezon City. Doctors, they said, will be prescribing doses of ivermectin to senior citizens and other indigent individuals.
In setting up their "Ivermectin Pan-three", Marcoleta and Defensor slammed the "complacency, if not indifference" of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the supposed potentials of ivermectin in treating or preventing COVID-19.
"Time and again, they are dismissive of the avalanche of clinical trials that have unfolded before their very eyes, unyielding to bend and improvise the guidelines and policies that apply only during normal times. The have stonewalled and become too unwilling to compromise and be flexible in the face of the great necessity to save lives," said the lawmakers.
"This grave public health emergency caused by the pandemic is technically a war that needs to be decisively confronted. In war, people protect themselves with anything in order to survive. We need to cross the line and break the glass ceilings, if we must, one way or the other," they added.
The DOH and the FDA have since maintained a careful position about the use of ivermectin, amid pressure from the divided medical sector as well as lawmakers who have been pushing for its widespread use and distribution. An expert also warned that high doses of ivermectin can cause brain damage.
The World Health Organization (WHO) cited the lack of trials and evidence of its efficacy as an anti-viral drug, specifically in lessening the symptoms of COVID-19, or preventing infection.
"What we are actually creating is a false confidence to people that if they take Ivermectin they are going to be protected. And that could actually be harmful," WHO representative to the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said during a House hearing last March 30.
Still, the lawmakers insisted the testimonies of doctors and groups who support and attest to the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 patients.
Marcoleta and Defensor said that under their "Ivermectin Pan-three" project, each beneficiary would be getting a minimum of three ivermectin capsules or tablets free of charge. They said doctors from the Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Philippines (CDC-PH) and Lifecore Bio-Integrative, Inc. will be assisting.
President Duterte has recently given the green-light for the conduct of local clinical trials for ivemectin. Also, five hospitals have so far been granted FDA permits for its compassionate use in coronavirus patients.
Asked about the legal implications of distributing ivermectin to the public, FDA Director-General Eric Domingo previously told the Manila Bulletin that "the doctor and the pharmacist are responsible for the prescription and the drug dispensed."