Overview
- JAMA Network Open, published Tuesday, reports that U.S. same-day prescriptions for ivermectin plus a benzimidazole roughly doubled in January–July 2025 compared with the same months in 2024.
- Prescribing rose more than 2.5 times for people with cancer, with the largest increases among men, White patients under 65, and residents of the U.S. South.
- The UCLA-led team analyzed de-identified electronic health records from the TriNetX network covering over 68 million patients and tracked clinician orders for the drug pair on the same day.
- The authors stress the study is observational and cannot prove the podcast caused the spike, and it did not show whether prescriptions were filled or replaced proven cancer treatments.
- There is no clinical-trial evidence that ivermectin or benzimidazoles treat cancer in humans, fenbendazole is approved only for animals, and oncologists warn that chasing such cures can delay effective care even as overall prescribing rates remain low.