7вЂ“ 12) Ivermectin is also highly effective against ticks, for example, the ixodid tick Rhipicephalus ( Boophilus) microplus, one of the most important cattle parasites in the tropics and subtropics, which causes enormous economic damage. It is effective against a wide range of parasites, including gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, mites, lice and hornflies.

1) Originating from a single Japanese soil sample and the outcome of the innovative, international collaborative research partnership to find new antiparasitics, the extremely safe and more effective avermectin derivative, ivermectin, was initially introduced as a commercial product for Animal Health in 1981. 7) Despite decades of searching around the world, the Japanese microorganism remains the only source of avermectin ever found. Promising bioactive samples were then sent to the MSD laboratories for further in vivo testing where a potent and promising novel bioactivity was found, subsequently identified as being caused by a new compound, which was named вЂavermectinвЂ™. Under the terms of the research agreement, researchers at the Kitasato Institute isolated organisms from soil samples and carried out preliminary in vitro evaluation of their bioactivity. In the early-1970s, a novel international Public SectorвЂ“Private Sector partnership was initiated by one of us (ЕЊmura, then head of the Antibiotics Research Group at TokyoвЂ™s Kitasato Institute), forming a collaboration with the US-based Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) pharmaceutical company. It was the worldвЂ™s first endectocide, forerunner of a completely new class of antiparasitic agents, potently active against a wide range of internal and external nematodes and arthropods. ) was a truly revolutionary drug, unprecedented in many ways. When it first appeared in the late-1970s, ivermectin, a derivative of avermectin (Fig. 1вЂ“ 6) However, none have concentrated in detail on the interacting sequence of events involved in the passage of the drug into human use.

Several extensive reports, including reviews authored by us, have been published detailing the events behind the discovery, development and commercialization of the avermectins and ivermectin (22,23-dihydroavermectin B), as well as the donation of ivermectin and its use in combating Onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. But ivermectin can also be considered alongside those worthy contenders, based on its versatility, safety and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide-especially on hundreds of millions of the worldвЂ™s poorest people. There are few drugs that can seriously lay claim to the title of вЂWonder drugвЂ™, penicillin and aspirin being two that have perhaps had greatest beneficial impact on the health and wellbeing of Mankind. This paper looks in depth at the events surrounding ivermectinвЂ™s passage from being a huge success in Animal Health into its widespread use in humans, a development which has led many to describe it as a вЂњwonderвЂќ drug. It has also been used to successfully overcome several other human diseases and new uses for it are continually being found. It is now being used free-of-charge as the sole tool in campaigns to eliminate both diseases globally. It was quickly discovered to be ideal in combating two of the worldвЂ™s most devastating and disfiguring diseases which have plagued the worldвЂ™s poor throughout the tropics for centuries. Originally introduced as a veterinary drug, it kills a wide range of internal and external parasites in commercial livestock and companion animals. Discovered in the late-1970s, the pioneering drug ivermectin, a dihydro derivative of avermectin-originating solely from a single microorganism isolated at the Kitasato Intitute, Tokyo, Japan from Japanese soil-has had an immeasurably beneficial impact in improving the lives and welfare of billions of people throughout the world.

Medication to kill hookworms in humans