A bill to allow Arkansans to purchase ivermectin over-the-counter passed a legislative committee Thursday. The bill does not mandate the use of the drug, but instead allows stores to sell it if they choose.
Ivermectin is used across the world to treat parasitic infections, though it is rarely prescribed by doctors in the United States. Recently, the drug has been utilized in underground treatment of COVID-19.
Science has almost universally shown the drug to be ineffective at treating the condition. The FDA recommends caution when taking Ivermectin, especially with other drugs. One BBC report detailed medical fabrications and outright fraud in 26 studies into the drug.
Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, presented the bill Thursday. She said she was motivated to support it after doctors would not prescribe the drug to her father at the end of his life.
“Pop had diabetes and some other things,” she said. “We put him in the VA. I begged for him to receive ivermectin and mitochondrial antibodies, which he received none of.”
She says her father died two days later, while her mother who was also sick stayed home and consumed ivermectin “and she just came through fine.”
Bentley said Tylenol, the regularly used over-the-counter painkiller, has a far higher rate of overdose deaths. This was a point also made by Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, when the bill was in a Senate committee. Tylenol is far more commonly used than ivermectin.
Bentley also made the repeated argument that the drug is already being used underground, as it is available at agricultural supply stores for veterinary use.
Democratic Rep. Stephen Magie, who would later vote against the bill, said:
“It's certainly better that if someone is going to take this, they take the human form instead of going to the co-op.”
He still thought the bill left the drug too unregulated.
“If you're going to take a drug your pharmacist needs to be the one that sits there and talks to you about potential side effects,” he said.
Repeatedly throughout the meeting, legislators would incorrectly claim the drug received the Nobel Peace Prize. The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to the scientists who discovered the drug, though they won for finding a parasite treatment, not for anything related COVID-19.
Bentley brought along a witness, Brock Thompson. He regularly described himself as being “in the medical field.” When asked by Magie to introduce himself again, Thompson said he is a “regular guy” before admitting he is not a doctor.
“I've just seen some studies,” he said.
Thompson said he worked for 16 years in medical device sales, though he never “touched” patients.
He talked about the case of Dr. Mary Bowden, a Texas doctor who was suspended and later resigned for promoting ivermectin.
Thompson said she cured “6,000 patients” with the drug, though Little Rock Public Radio found no evidence to prove this.
The bill passed on a voice vote and now heads to the full House for consideration.
