- Mel Gibson claimed on Joe Rogan’s podcast last year that ivermectin could cure cancer.
- Prescriptions of the drug rose 160% from 2024 to 2025, a study has revealed.
- Mel Gibson is directing The Resurrection of Christ.
Actor Mel Gibson's claim that ivermectin, a medicine, fights cancer has led to a spike in its usage.
Several cancer patients are turning to the antiparasitic medication for treatment, with prescriptions of ivermectin and the compound benzimidazole jumping by over 160% from 2024 to 2025, research published in JAMA revealed.
The study looked at health data from over 68 million people. It found that while ivermectin was not effective against cancer, the surge among patients was driven by Mel Gibson's appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience last year.
Appearing on the podcast on 9 January 2025, Gibson claimed that cancer can be cured by ivermectin, People reported.
"There's got to be something that cures things, and I'll tell you a good story," Gibson told Joe Rogan. "I have three friends; all three of them are at stage four cancer. All three of them don't have cancer right now at all, and they had some serious stuff going on."
When asked what his friends had taken, the 70-year-old actor replied that they had treated their disease using ivermectin.
Following Gibson's appearance on the podcast, the JAMA study found "disproportionate increases" in ivermectin prescriptions among "male patients, White patients, residents of the US South, and individuals with cancer."
Dr John Mafi, an associate professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told ABC News that ivermectin's effectiveness against cancer "has not been proven in any kind of confirmatory clinical trial, which is the gold standard of evidence we need to know whether a treatment works."
He expressed concern that cancer patients were delaying or abandoning treatments with proven benefit due to claims about ivermectin.
Ivermectin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a generally safe drug for the treatment of parasitic diseases in humans. It is also used as a dewormer for livestock such as horses.
While celebrity endorsements and social media claims of its effectiveness have gone viral, the FDA has not authorised the medication's use as a treatment for cancer.
Mel Gibson's Upcoming Projects
The veteran actor is directing The Resurrection of Christ. The religious drama will be released in two parts - the first installment on 6 May 2027 and the second on 25 May 2028.
The film features Jaakko Ohtonen, Pier Luigi Pasino, Kasia Smutniak, Mariela Garriga, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Rupert Everett in pivotal roles.
