Abstract: Received: 29 May 2021 | Accepted: 31 May 2021 DOI: 10.1002/jmv.27122 RESEARCH ARTICLE Clinical study evaluating the efficacy of ivermectin in COVID‐19 treatment: A randomized controlled study Sherief Abd‐Elsalam1 | Rasha A. Noor2 | Rehab Badawi1 | Mai Khalaf1 | Eslam S. Esmail1 | Shaimaa Soliman3 | Mohamed S. Abd El Ghafar4 | Mohamed Elbahnasawy5 | Ehab F. Moustafa6 | Sahar M. Hassany6 | Mohammed A. Medhat6 | Haidi Karam‐Allah Ramadan6 | Maii A. S. Eldeen7 Mohamed Alboraie8 | Ahmed Cordie9 | Gamal Esmat9 1 Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt | Abstract Researchers around the world are working at record speed to find the best ways to 2 Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt 3 Department of Public health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt 4 Department of Anesthesia, Surgical Intensive Care, and Pain Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt 5 Department of Emergency Medicine and traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt 6 Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt 7 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt 8 Department of Internal Medicine, Al‐Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt 9 Department of Endemic Medicine, Kasr Alainy School of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Correspondence Sherief Abd‐Elsalam, Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, El‐Giash St, 31527 Tanta, Egypt. Email: sherif.abdelbaky@med.tanta.edu.eg treat and prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of ivermectin for the treatment of hospitalized mild to moderate COVID‐19 infected patients. This was a randomized open‐label controlled study that included 164 patients with COVID‐19. Patients were randomized into two groups where Group 1 (Ivermectin group) included patients who received ivermectin 12 mg once daily for 3 days with standard care and Group 2 (control group) included patients who received standard protocol of treatment alone for 14 days. The main outcomes were mortality, the length of hospital stay, and the need for mechanical ventilation. All patients were followed up for 1 month. Overall, 82 individuals were randomized to receive ivermectin plus standard of care and 82 to receive standard of care alone. Patients in the ivermectin group had a shorter length of hospital stay (8.82 ± 4.94 days) than the control group (10.97 ± 5.28 days), but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.085). Three patients (3.7%) in each group required mechanical ventilation (p = 1.00). The death rate was three patients in the ivermectin group (3.7%) versus four patients (4.9%) in the control group without any significant difference between the two groups (p = 1.00). Although there was no statistically significant difference in any endpoints by ivermectin doses (12 mg/day for 3 days); there was an observed trend to reducing hospital stay in the ivermectin‐ treated group. KEYWORDS COVID‐19, chloroquine, ivermectin, mortality, treatment 1 | INTRODUCTION in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. It was originally reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019. The WHO Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is caused by a novel..