(Georgia Recorder) — Georgians who want to buy a controversial anti-parasitic drug may soon be able to pick it up from their local pharmacist without a prescription.
A state House committee Thursday amended a bill to allow pharmacists to distribute ivermectin over the counter to Georgians 18 and older.
The ivermectin language was added to a bill aimed at updating provisions around the Department of Public Health that had already passed the Senate during the final madcap days of Georgia’s legislative session, set to end April 2. Because the bill was amended, it will need to pass the Senate again as well as the House if it is to become law.
The bill passed the House Public and Community Health Committee mostly along party lines despite warnings from medical experts like Johns Creek Democratic Rep. Michelle Au, who is also a physician, that it could endanger Georgians’ health.
“It is galling at this point in session, when time is running out, to have to hear this bill now for the fourth time in the public health committee – a bill that was fine and passed out twice and was yanked back in order to insert this language about ivermectin availability, to waste that amount of time when there are hundreds of real public health bills that would have immediate effect on patients in Georgia,” she said.
Doctors prescribe ivermectin for parasitic infections ranging from the extremely serious, like river blindness, to the more mundane, like head lice. It’s also commonly used in large doses to protect livestock from parasites.
False rumors started on the internet claim that the drug can be used to treat ailments including COVID-19 and cancer, leading some to purchase the drug from agriculture and livestock supply stores for personal rather than animal use. Studies have not found the drug to be effective for those uses.
State Rep. Karen Mathiak, a Griffin Republican who sponsored the original proposal, said her goal is to make sure people who choose to take the drug do so as safely as possible.
“Right now, what people are doing in the state of Georgia is using equine ivermectin out of places like Tractor Supply or your feed store,” she said. “It’s been told to me that farmers have been taking it for years when they’re around cattle and horses, because they tend to have parasites. So that’s the bill, and the thing that I do like about it being behind the counter is then the pharmacist has the availability to speak with their customer about dosage and contraindications.”
Au said drugs available without a prescription typically treat ailments that are easy to self-diagnose, like a headache or stuffy nose, and have a low risk of serious side effects, neither of which are the case for ivermectin.
“You do need specific types of clinical tests to determine, do you have intestinal worms, for example. Some of those diagnostics are not available to a patient at home, and it is also not available to a pharmacist. For example, a pharmacist, as we discussed last time, will not be doing a fecal smear and looking at that under the microscope to look for (parasites).”
According to the Georgia Poison Center, a mild ivermectin overdose can lead to symptoms including rash, headache, dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and mild increased heart rate, while more severe toxicity can cause seizures, coma, acidic blood, respiratory failure and low blood pressure.
Overdoses may be more likely when using products designed for large farm animals.
Other health care professionals on the committee objected to the bill, including Tucker Democratic state Rep. Imani Barnes, who holds a doctorate in public health.
In addition to potential health risks, opponents said the bill could make pharmacists liable to legal challenges or cause them to choose not to carry ivermectin at all, which could be bad news for people with parasitic infections and prescriptions from a doctor.
Committee Chair Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican and registered nurse, expressed reservations of her own.
“I have concerns as a registered nurse, but unfortunately, I think we’re becoming a nation of people who want to be their own doctors,” she said. “I think this may be one step in at least trying to get this into an arena where at least somebody with medical training, i.e., the pharmacist, would be able to talk to them.”
“It may not be the best thing, but better than just going and buying it at the feed and seed,” Cooper added.
At least five other states — Tennessee, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana and Texas — have made ivermectin available over the counter.
