The measure, which the state Legislature passed earlier this year, went into law immediately on April 14.
Idaho has become the latest of a handful of states to legalize over-the-counter sales of the anti-parasite drug ivermectin following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, did not offer any comments on the bill, which was among many measures he signed on April 14. The bill had been passed with little resistance in the Idaho Legislature and took effect immediately.
In March, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill legalizing over-the-counter sales of the drug, as did Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in 2022.
A readout of the bill introduced in the Idaho House of Representatives says, in part, that ivermectin would be able to be used “without restriction or consultation” with a “health care professional,” and that it could also be sold over the counter, or “legally sold and purchased without a prescription.”
During the pandemic, some researchers touted ivermectin as a means to treat COVID-19, although federal health officials have said that the drug is not effective in treating the virus.
State Sen. Tammy Nichols, a Republican, presented the bill before the state Senate floor on April 3 and told local media outlets that it would eliminate a hurdle for consumers.
“We’re not mandating use, we’re not prescribing treatment, and we are not mandating that it be sold,” Nichols told KTVB-7. “What we’re doing with this bill is simple. We’re removing a barrier.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon, a Republican who helped co-sponsor the bill, said ivermectin has a broad range of uses.
“This is a drug that has had really immeasurable impacts on improving the lives of billions and billions of people throughout the world since it was discovered. It’s been called, in many places, a wonder drug,” Anthon told lawmakers in an Idaho Senate committee hearing in early April.
“It’s been able to serve in treating and in many ways curing human diseases—treating parasites, worms in humans. And in most countries, it is legal over the counter.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not cleared ivermectin to be used for COVID-19, while advising against people using forms of ivermectin intended for animals.
