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Covid and Big Pharma: The debate about cheap generic drugs

Have the big pharmaceutical companies conspired to undermine support for the use of cheap generic drugs in the early treatment of Covid-19, and to discredit the highly qualified clinicians who have advocated for them? This article, by one of the most prominent advocates for ivermectin, makes the case that they have. (Dr Pierre Kory, Substack, 6 January 2022)

I have tried to keep track of the debate about the use of ivermectin since it was first raised by the Australian professor Thomas Borody last year.

Dr Kory and his colleagues cite over 70 studies supporting ivermectin. The problem is that they are all either retrospective observational studies, or small scale and poorly funded  randomized controlled trials, and hence of arguable credibility. Statisticians like Dr Tess Lawrie have tried to address this by doing meta-analyses of the totality of the studies. However this leads to another complex debate about which studies have sufficient credibility for inclusion.

So, how come there have been no large-scale randomized controlled trials?  According to Kory, this is because such studies are enormously expensive and are generally funded by the big drug companies, which have no interest in promoting cheap, out-of-patent drugs that might compete with new patented therapeutics they are developing.

If Kory et al are right about this, it would be the second biggest scandal of the Covid pandemic after the CCP regime and WHO lying about the transmissibility of the disease and enabling its global spread in the initial stages.

Excerpts   Read the article   Discuss the article   View in graph

Ivermectin, a decades-old, off-patent drug costing pennies to make, with an unparalleled safety profile and numerous manufacturers across the world, actually sits atop one of the largest and strongest clinical trials evidence base in history. The existing, massive amount of clinical trials data shows immense efficacy against COVID-19 in all its phases; prevention, early and late treatment, and long-haul syndrome (no actual trials in long-haul but rather extensive positive clinical experiences). Despite this inarguable (yes, inarguable) supportive evidence, no major Western or international health agency has recommended its use in COVID-19. Conversely, ivermectin has been officially adopted for early treatment in all or part of 23 “less developed” countries (39 if you include non-government medical organizations), and which include about 25% of the world’s population.

Now, before we delve deeper into the workings of the most heinous disinformation campaign ever waged by the pharmaceutical industry in history (and also it’s most successful so far as 75% of the earth’s inhabitants still have not been recommended to use it to treat COVID), I will ask you not to just “take my word for it" but instead take you on a brief, guided tour of the insanely positive evidence base supporting the use of ivermectin in COVID-19.

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