A box of ivermectin is shown in a pharmacy on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)NASHVILLE – A Republican-backed bill that allows Tennessee pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the anti-parasitic-drug ivermectin for human patients for COVID-19 – which also contains a provision shielding pharmacists and physicians from getting sued over it – is headed to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration.
The House on Thursday approved the bill on a 66-20 party-line vote with bill sponsor Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, stating it is an effective alternative to COVID-19 vaccines – even though a double-blind, randomized study of 3,500 COVID-19 patients last month in the New England Journal of Medicine found people who took ivermectin fared no better than those receiving a placebo.
Senators passed the bill, sponsored there by Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, on Wednesday along mostly partisan lines with proponents also citing its effectiveness. The vote was 23-6.
The drug’s manufacturer, Merck, states on its website there is “no scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19,” based on pre-clinical studies.
Two Republican senators who are physicians took opposition positions. One of them, Sen. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville, voted no, citing the new study among other criticisms of the bill. Sen. Joey Hensley, a Hohenwald physician, said he has used ivermectin, which is used to fight parasites in horses and has been found effective in treating a river blindness disease in Africa.