COVidIVERmectin: Ivermectin for Treatment of Covid-19 (COVER)

Primary objectives

The study is aimed:

1. at defining if ivermectin, administered at dosage of 600 μg/kg or 1200 μg/kg QD for five consecutive days is safe in patients with initial, asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic SARS_CoV-2 infection,
2. at defining if ivermectin, administered at the dosage(s) found to be safe decreases the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 at Day 7.

Secondary objectives To assess

1. the temporal profile of viral load at baseline, day 7, 14 and 30
2. the time to clinical cure (for symptomatic patients)
3. the proportion of patients with virological clearance at day 14 and 30.
4. the hospitalization rate.
5. the COVID-19 Severity Score at day 14 and 30

STUDY DESIGN

This is a multicentre, prospective, randomized, double-blind, adaptive phase II dose finding study.

Patients meeting the inclusion criteria will be asked to participate to the study and randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to either:

• Placebo arm (arm A): placebo will be identical in appearance to ivermectin in order to preserve blinding and will be administered p.o. at empty stomach with water once daily, for 5 days
• Intervention arms: a) Ivermectin, single dose 600 μg/kg, for 5 days (I_600) and placebo (arm B) ; b) Ivermectin, single dose 1200 μg/kg, for 5 days (I_1200) (arm C) ); these drugs will be administered p.o. once daily, for 5 days.

In arm A and B, the number of placebo tablets to be administered will be calculated by the study dedicated pharmacist considering the number of tablets that should be taken in case a patient with the same weight is assigned to arm C.

Patients will be randomized by a centralized computer system. At randomization a treatment ID is assigned to the patient. Once a treatment ID is assigned this must not be re-assigned even in cases of errors.

Enrolled subjects will be identified by a unique subject number (patient code) that will remain consistent for the duration of the study.

Patients will be recruited at the emergency room of hospitals, and/or among asymptomatic hospital workers found positive for SARS-CoV-2 at routine screening and/or in outpatient ambulatory settings, and/or at home, if not meeting the clinical criteria for hospitalization, according to the routine procedure of each participating site. The expected duration of subject inclusion in the study is of 1 month, or until the planned number of subjects to be enrolled will be reached.