 September 2, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Intergovernmental Affairs (IGA) team wants to make you aware that on August 30, FDA issued a letter to veterinarians and retailers asking for assistance in sharing important safety information with consumers about the dangerous misuse of animal ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 in humans.
As noted in many recent news stories and in a Health Alert from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, poison control centers across the U.S. are seeing a sharp spike in reports of people suffering adverse health effects after taking animal ivermectin. People are purchasing various highly concentrated animal ivermectin drug formulations such as “pour-on,” injectable, paste, and “drench” that are intended for horses, cattle, and sheep, and taking these drugs has made some people very sick. Even if animal drugs have the same active ingredient as an approved human drug, animal drugs have not been evaluated for safety or effectiveness in humans. Treating human medical conditions with veterinary drugs can be very dangerous.
For FDA-related inquiries regarding this matter, please feel free to contact FDA’s IGA staff at IGA@fda.hhs.gov.
This message is being broadcast by the Division of Communications in FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA).
Thank you,
FDA/ORA
Office of Communications and Project Management
Division of Communications
Mailbox: DivComm-ORA@fda.hhs.gov
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