COVID-19: Ontario doctor banned from prescribing ivermectin now director of company offering drug

An Ontario doctor prohibited from prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 has launched a telehealth service offering ivermectin to treat COVID-19, Global News can reveal.

An Ontario doctor prohibited from prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 has launched a telehealth service offering the unapproved treatment to Ontarians to treat the virus, Global News can reveal.

Dr Patrick Phillips, a family doctor who is the subject of several investigations by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), is the director of a new telehealth service based in Ontario that is offering ivermectin, an antiparasitic treatment not approved by Health Canada to treat COVID-19.

The service, called Canadian Covid TeleHealth Inc (CCTH), was launched by members of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance (CCCA), a website promoting information at odds with public health advice, which also features new initiatives from at least two other Ontario health professionals with COVID-related licence restrictions.

But Phillips’ involvement, as well as the existence of the service, is not breaking any provincial laws.

It comes as the regulatory body and province spar about how to deal with physicians operating in a medical grey area. Both the CPSO and Ministry of Health say investigating a company, such as the CCTH, is not their responsibility.

The CPSO says it has been asking the ministry for legislative changes to help it deal with complaints about doctors since 2019.

Meanwhile, the doctors at the centre of the investigations are launching new ventures in order to share unverified health information and administer unproven COVID-19 treatments, which escape the reach of the province.

Global News recently detailed the emergence of the CCCA, a self-described group of “Canadian doctors, scientists and health care practitioners committed to providing independent science-based evidence to empower Canadians.”