TOKYO – An increasing number of people in Japan are taking imported Covid-19 drugs that are not authorised for use in the country, a practice that draws a warning from public health officials, Jijji Press reported.
The Health Ministry is warning people against taking such drugs without careful consideration because side effects from unauthorised medicines may not be covered by government relief.
In November, a woman in her 40s in Shizuoka Prefecture took ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug produced by an Indian company and is not approved as a Covid-19 treatment in Japan.
She ordered the drug through an import agent after collecting information, including reading research papers available at the United States Disease Control and Prevention Centres.
“I bought it as I thought that I had to take it, at my own risk, to prevent infection,” she said.
Japan’s Kitasato Institute has been conducting a clinical trial to determine the efficacy of ivermectin in treating Covid-19.
An import agent said there are several unauthorised medicines, including ivermectin, which have been ordered by people in Japan to protect against the coronavirus.
This is apparently because the use of remdesivir and dexamethasone, drugs approved by Japanese regulators to treat Covid-19, requires prescriptions from doctors.
“Most of the clients ordering medicines to treat Covid-19 are those in their 50s and 60s, who are at higher risk of developing severe symptoms,” the agent said.
Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug once touted by former US President Donald Trump as a Covid-19 treatment, and the HIV treatment lopinavir once proved popular among such people. But the World Health Organisation did not find any efficacy of them in Covid-19 patients.
There are some foreign-based import agents touting unauthorised medicines as coronavirus treatments in violation of the pharmaceutical and medical device law, which bans advertising of such drugs.
“Generally speaking, no one guarantees what’s inside imported medicines. It’s extremely dangerous to take them on one’s own judgment,” said a ministry official. – Bernama, February 22, 2021
