The Editor of the American Journal of Therapeutics hereby issues an Expression of Concern for Kory P, Meduri GU, Varon J, Iglesias J, Marik PE. Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19. Am J Ther. 2021;28(3): e299–e318.
The decision is based on the evaluation of allegations of inaccurate data collection and/or reporting in at least one of the primary sources of the meta-analysis contained in the article.1,2 These allegations were first made after the publication of this article.1 The exclusion of the suspicious data appears to raise questions regarding the ivermectin's potential to decrease the mortality of COVID-19 infection.2 Currently, the investigation of these allegations is incomplete and inconclusive.
This Expression of Concern does not imply that the methodology used by Dr. Pierre Kory and his collaborators was incorrect. The use of summary data published by others is a generally accepted approach in biomedical metanalytic research.1
The American Journal of Therapeutics is steadfastly committed to upholding truth in science and the highest standards in publication ethics. We will update our decision regarding this work should more information become available.
Footnotes
The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
REFERENCES
- 1.Lawrence JM, Meyerowitz-Katz G, Heathers JA, et al. The lesson of ivermectin: meta-analyses based on summary data alone are inherently unreliable. Nat Med. 2021;27:1853–1854. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Rothrock SG, Weber KD, Giordano PA, et al. Meta-Analyses do not establish improved mortality with ivermectin use in COVID-19. Am J Ther. 2022;29:e87–e94. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]