In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, a group of doctors sued the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services for “unlawfully” interfering with their ability to practice medicine and prescribe ivermectin for use in Covid-19 patients.
Specifically, the three doctors—Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden and Paul E. Marik—argue the FDA can’t ban use of an approved human drug for “off-label” use.
“The FDA also can not advise whether a patient should take an approved drug for a particular purpose. Those decisions fall within the scope of the doctor-patient relationship,” the complaint says. “Attempts by the FDA to influence or intervene in the doctor-patient relationship amount to interference with the practice of medicine, the regulation of which is — and always has been — reserved to states.”
One example cited in the complaint is the FDA’s article detailing “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.” Another is an FDA tweet suggesting the drug is only used for animals, when in reality the drug won a Nobel Prize in 2015 for human use.
The doctors are clear the lawsuit in not a debate about the efficacy of ivermectin use for Covid-19 patients, but rather seeks to preserve the independent judgement calls physicians make with their patients regarding treatment options.
They argue if the federal government is allowed to interfere with treatments a physician recommends during Covid-19, “this interference will metastasize to other circumstances, destroying the carefully constructed statutory wall between federal and state regulatory powers, and between the FDA and the professional judgment of health professionals.”
In a statement, Bowden said “fighting the system has been a much bigger challenge than fighting the disease.“
“Despite my excellent track record treating COVID patients, the FDA’s smear campaign against ivermectin continues to be a daily hurdle to overcome,” she said. “I am fighting back – the public needs to understand what the FDA has done is illegal, and I hope this suit will prevent them from continuing to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship.”
