Hospitals can apply for ‘off-label use’ of Ivermectin, says health ministry

[superadmin]

PETALING JAYA: Hospitals are allowed to apply to the Drug Control Authority to use Ivermectin for off-label use including treating Covid-19 patients, the health ministry said.

“Like any other medicine, including Lopinavir and Kitonavir, if there is a strong indication that it can be used, hospitals can apply to the Drug Control Authority for off-label use,” the ministry said. The Drug Control Authority is an agency under the health ministry.

But the use of off-label medication, the ministry said, must be done in a monitored environment. Off-label use is a term to describe a medical drug that is used for a different purpose than the one it was originally meant for.

The ministry said this in response to a demand by a private doctor asking a hospital in the Klang Valley to reveal if it had used the controversial drug to treat any Covid-19 patient.

Dr Amir Farid Isahak said based on the discharge notes he had obtained from a “close family friend”, the hospital in question had used Ivermectin, which is currently not recognised by the health ministry, for Covid-19 treatment of a patient.


- More -