“In this review, we delineate the story of how this antiparasitic drug was eventually identified as a potential treatment option for COVID-19. We review SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle, the role of the nucleocapsid protein, the turning points in past research that provided initial ‘hints’ for IVM’s antiviral activity and its molecular mechanism of action- and finally, we culminate with the current clinical findings…
Concluding Remarks and Perspectives: The available data from IVM clinical trials lack uniformity and have not established the optimal anti-viral dose. However, the evidence does support its safety and efficacy in improving survival rates, especially compared to the other aforementioned drugs. It is important to note that past research has demonstrated the importance of combined, rather than anti-viral monotherapy. Indeed, the use of a single drug does not efficiently suppress long-term replication of the virus. As evident by the ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19, the most efficient decrease in mortality (0%) was largely a result of multiple prescribed drugs including IVM, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin or IVM and doxycyline Table 1.”