Home Made Ivermectin Cream

[Guide]

ElaineA Home Made Ivermectin Cream (Cheaper than Soolantra or Permethrin Creams)

How to blend your own Ivermectin Cream for treating Rosacea and possibly Occular Rosacea (eye lids and face only, do NOT put this stuff in your eyes!)

Soolantra (1% Ivermectin cream) costs your insurance company or uninsured patients about $455 per 45 gram tube.
A competing product, Permethrin cream which contains 5% Permethrin is available for as low as $41.21 for a 60 gram tube(GoodRx price quoted today at Walmart). Permethrin is used to treat scabies and lice and is sometimes prescribed for demodex mites as well.

Soolantra Ingredients:
1. Galderma states that Soolantra is 1% Ivermectin in their Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream. Cetaphil is noted for making high quality moisturizers.
- Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream - 20 Oz available from Amazon for $16.69 (- Amazon rating is 4.5 stars) OR a travel size container may be found for about $2-$3 in the drugstore travel section.

2. Ivermectin - available in inexpensive generic prescription form. The Ivermectin drug has been available since 1975 and is off patent.
- Amazon sells the Duramectin Ivermectin Paste 1.87% For Horses, 0.21 oz for $5.37 or a 3-pack for $11.24

I wonder if you could make your own Ivermectin Cream? The horse paste is for horses but is edible at least by horses. If there is nothing irritating in it, it might work OK for humans when applied topically.

Dilution equation from Wikipedia:
C1 * V1 = C2 * V2

To dilute the 1.87% horse paste with the cream down to a 1% solution would then work out to:
0.0187 * 0.21 = 0.01 * V2

V2 = (0.0187/0.01) * 0.21 = 0.3927 oz Total Volume of completed mix. Amount of Moisterizer to Add is 0.3927 - 0.21 = 0.1827 oz. (5.18 grams) of cream per tube of horse paste. That will dilute it to the same 1% solution in Soolantra.

One tube of Duramectin paste mixed with a good moisturizing cream would yield about 11.13 grams of ivermectin cream.
The full 3 pack of Duramectin + 0.5481 oz of Cetaphil moisturizing cream would yield 1.18 oz or about 33.45 grams of ivermectin cream.

I don't know if this would be useful or not. The Duramectin paste might be irritating in some way to humans. But it would certainly be cheaper with about $20 or less cost vs. $455 per tube of Soolantra.

Note: More information on Horse Paste for Rosacea

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[Guide]

Trillium, 

Tom Busby, SD poster extraordinare at RF, mentioned in a post on this subject at RF, "an alternative source of ivermectin, on eBay" which is ivermectin powder. I asked Tom whether this would be a good idea since it seems a lot safer to use the horse paste than have to concoct a paste with grain alcohol and his comment is, "horse paste is fairly expensive for a really tiny amount of product.... I have to assume that someone who has some experience formulating hot emulsions (oil in water) could make a non-greasy cream with this ivermectin powder."

There is a formulae based upon weight how much ivermectin to use per pound of body weight. 

You mention using the Cetaphil base for your concoction. Have you used Cetaphil? No issues with Cetaphil? Some have reported they cannot tolerate Cetaphil, while others just love it. We have a post explaining the 'basis for vehicle' regarding the use of Cetaphil with Soolantra that should prove illuminating to you. Some prefer the smaller amount of inactive ingredients in horse paste over using the huge amount of inactive ingredients in Cetaphil based Soolantra. There are a significant number of brands of horse paste and each one has similar but different inactive ingredients which are discussed in this thread. We have found two brands that actually list the inactive ingredients, but most brands do not list the inactive ingredients since they are not required to do so. 

As for price of Soolantra have you contacted Galderma about the CareConnect program that you may qualify for? 

As for the high prices pharmaceutical companies charge in the USA which is related to the medical insurance conglomerate and the universal health insurance issue, yes, it is sad that medical treatment is for the rich, similar to the way justice is given. If you are rich you definitely have an advantage in the USA for justice and medical treatment. But there are some work arounds, where philanthropic organizations help the poor with the money donated by rich benefactors but obviously not enough is given to alleviate these issues. Our non profit organization tries to help in small ways by educating Rosaceans on alternative treatments like ElaineA has done in this thread. Hopefully, you will figure out your own ivermectin solution. Are you confident that using ivermectin actually controls your rosacea? Ivermectin doesn't work for every rosacean.

Which brand of horse paste 'leaves a goopy mess on your face at night' ?

Have you tried using the horse paste on at night and then washing it off in the AM? Most use Soolantra this way, only use at night. Horse paste is usually only put on at night and then washed off in the AM. 

Keep us posted. 

 

[ElaineA]

Trillium.

Soolantra is a 1% Ivermectin cream in the "soothing" Cetaphil like base according to a post by Galderma.

The tricky bit with the 1% liquid solution is that adding it to the cream base will dilute it more so that the resulting mix is less than 1%.  If its already 1% you may actually best use the liquid solution directly onto clean skin.  Try a few drops on the palm and smooth it on the face like a thin facial serum.  The 1% liquid is the right strength to be effective already.  Let it dry.  Optionally you could apply a moisturizer like Cetaphil or whatever you prefer after the Ivermectin solution dries.  That should help eliminate the messy issues with the horse paste.

As Brady says, your best bet to make a 1% mix would be to use the Ivermectin powder.  I'm not sure what the Percent strength of the powder is - if its mixed with something it might be less than 100% pure.  The percentage will impact how much Cetaphil cream to mix with the powder.  To be a match for the strength of Soolantra the ratio should dilute the powder to 1% strength when mixed with the Cetaphil.

You only have to use the Soolantra once per day at night - that is when the mites are active.  So there shouldn't be any need to wear it under makeup during the day.  That may help with the makeup issue.

I totally agree with you about the absurd costs.  Ivermectin has been a generic drug for quite some time and is not that expensive.  By my rough calculations Soolantra has less than $20 worth of Ivermectin per tube.  So selling it for $600+ per tube is obscene.'

ElaineA

[Guide]

Soolantra at drugs.com costs $389/30 grams

 

 

[Trillium]

Cordain is one of the advisors here and that is enough  to have me remove my postings here.

[Guide]

On 8/15/2019 at 6:19 AM, Trillium said:

I have tried the ivermectin horse paste but it leaves a goopy mess on your face at night. No way to wear it under makeup either. It helps......

Which brand are you using?

[Guide]

On 8/15/2019 at 6:19 AM, Trillium said:

I found using the horse paste helped initially when I had a horrible outbreak but then  I found it created an environment where it wasn't as effective since you have this moist gel on your face that kind of gets all over your hair and pillows and also seems to make the Rosacea revert back a bit and not sure why that is. SAL3 seems to dry out the skin and helps it when the horse paste stops working as well. Thanks for any help you can provide in how to figure out the recipe for ivermectin cream using a liquid ivermectin solution. 

You may want to try the Agri-Mectin gel on your face at night and let it dry before you put your face on the pillow or bed. In the am wash it off. See if this works for you? 

[Guide]

4 hours ago, Trillium said:

I was using the Durvet Invermectin Paste:

https://www.amazon.com/Ivermectin-Paste-Dewormer-6-08g-Flavor/dp/B000HHLWPI

I would buy mine from a local animal feed store called Wilco for even less than Amazon sells it. But it was on Amazon I found ivermectin at all. The reviews from folks who are using it for Rosacea sold me on the idea.

I just tried the Agri-Mectin last night. I took a syringe and was able to take just enough out of the vial to put on my fingers to apply to my face. It dried on my face nicely so I avoided all the gooey gel feeling with this method. I think this maybe my best work around. I can see this vial of 50ml will last awhile too. It is 28.00 on Amazon but will look to see if I can find it locally for a bit cheaper if possible. If not, I still think this is a way more affordable way to go over Soolantra.

Yes, I think this is the best method you are trying. Try this for at least four weeks and post back your results. 

[Guide]

On 8/16/2019 at 10:39 AM, Trillium said:

I am also done with non profits for conditions that duplicate efforts and are not really doing much but creating jobs for people who are not really providing much in a way to get to hard answers on it all. I do think cancer is a big money maker. Many are relying on this field to bring in the big dollars which it does and I can see the conflict of interest with so much in health care.

You may find it interesting why the RRDi, the first non profit organization for rosacea founded by rosacea sufferers, was formed. A post on rosacea research in respect to funding helps get a clearer perspective. 

Currently there are four active non profit organizations for rosacea: 

National Rosacea Society (NRS) 501 (c) (3) non-profit
(Spends 60% of its donations on two private contractors owned by the director/president of the NRS, Sam Huff, and 10% of its donations on rosacea research)

American Acne and Rosacea Society (AARS) 501 (c) (3) non-profit
(Spends most of it donations on conventions for its prestigious members and very little on rosacea research)

Acne and Rosacea Society of Canada
(Absolutely no financial public records so we have no data on any rosacea research)

The RRDi, which is where you are now. 

You mention cancer, which as you point out receives millions, if not billions of dollars in donations, and very little is spent on cancer research if you actually check how each non profit organization for cancer spends its donations. This post explains where a few cancer organizations actually do spend a significant amount on cancer research, such as Dana Farber and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, but typically, most cancer non profits, i.e., The American Cancer Society (Group), spend very little on cancer research. For example the The American Cancer Society (Group) received almost a billion dollars in donations and spent less than one percent of this on cancer research. Most people don't care about any of this.  

The American Academy of Dermatology receives millions of dollars in donations and in 2015 spent 3% of the total on research, very little if any on rosacea research. 

The sad point of all this is that Rosaceans simply don't care how non profit organizations for rosacea should conduct themselves. They don't care about coming together and trying to do their own research. They continue to donate to the NRS who spends very little money of its donations on rosacea research, about ten percent, and spends the vast majority on private contractors owned by the president/director of the NRS. C'est la vie. 

[Guide]

12 hours ago, Trillium said:

You see all drugs will have some sort of placebo affect and some negatives will always be present no matter what.

Just posted something about the placebo/nocebo effect worth reading. 

[Guide]

1 hour ago, Trillium said:

Ben Goldacre is the Brit from Oxford who has been taking on big pharma regarding their sneaky practices. He talks about placebo affect and it is from his presentations I learned about this whole placebo issue for drug approvals. He also takes on these medical journals too. Clinical trial transparency is what he has been pushing for. Here is a very popular TED presentations he did about 7 yrs ago called What Doctors Don't Know About the Drugs They Prescribe:

https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_prescribe

Here is another presentation he did the year before on TED titled Battling Bad Science:

https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science

He talks about prescribing in the past based on not being given all the negative outcomes and harming patients this way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E28_qXeP9bk

Doctors and patients have both been victims of the negligent practices these big drug companies have been doing for a very long time.

I can't find it right now but he was part of this presentation to British politicians where he was warning them of the abuses these big drug companies continued to do. The whole reason for this meeting was to convince politicians to make these drug companies provide ALL outcomes for drug approvals. It was interesting since the drug companies hired older maybe retired doctors to speak for them. After listening to all concerned it was clear these drug representative doctors were complete sell outs for the drug companies and they made a lame attempt at presenting the drug companies position on leaving out important data in their publications for drug approvals. It was clear to me that Ben had made a very compelling argument for more transparency with the drug data.

Ben has been very outspoken taking on these drug companies and rightly so. It makes you want to avoid all drugs from companies if they are not required to publish all outcomes since there is no way doctors can be sure the drug is right or safe for a patient with so many unknowns.

I am showing good results so far with the Agri-Mectin. I was also prescribed the Metronidazole topical cream for day use which had a reasonable cost of about $14.00. No one explained to me how these work with ivermectin. They just give you a prescription and send you on your way. What I am thinking is the ivermectin begins annihilating the mites on the face. I think it may take some time with eggs that still need to hatch too. In the meantime as these buggers are dying off from ivermectin and/or just end of life span the bacteria from them breaking down in the pores cause an inflammatory response. This is probably why for years I was told Rosacea was an autoimmune condition but in fact is just an infestation is all. The Metronidazole probably reduces this inflammatory response when this external antibiotic comes in contact with this bacteria and killing the bacteria caused by rotting demodexes in the pores. So it is a one two punch to clean up the face quicker from the looks of it. 

It is such a shame that so many end up getting disfigured from bad Rosacea flares when it can be so easily mitigated cheaply. I have one scar from the last big flare. I could not for the life of me get into see a dermatologist in reasonable amount of time. I called all over and I had 1 to month wait to get in. Ridiculous!  I really didn't even consider going to an emergency clinic since didn't consider it a real emergency and the cost would have been high and maybe they wouldn't know how to deal with my other autoimmune condition is how I felt. When you have autoimmune conditions you are used to getting the classic shrugs from doctors. I was also changing insurance plans too and this also made for problems since you get into see these doctors quicker if you get a referral and that whole game is a bigt disgusting too. My new insurance didn't even require me to have referrals anyway but some doctor's offices still require referrals anyways. (I pay extra for this better insurance plan but it doesn't always provide me better consideration. That is when I began finding solutions on my own. I also at this point still believed Rosacea was still an auto immune condition that no one had a real solution for).

As I was using the horse medicine version of ivermectin gel it took some time to really see improvement since it was so bad. I literally had a few scabs from the infestation or inflammatory response. I was trying to be so careful and well one scab just came loose and I have a small indented scar from it. I felt like the medical community and the drug companies both let me down and I am sure others have felt the same way. Even when you have good insurance it doesn't mean you will get the care you need. This is how even the insured get fed up with the way things are done. I give them a C- for the way health care operates.

Years ago women had to go to the doctors for vaginal yeast infections to get a topical antibiotic ointment. It was costly and it happens to some women regularly. Plus you would have to wait to get into see the doctor and they created unnecessary road blocks this way. Then rational minds finally won the day and now this antibiotic topical doesn't need a prescription and woman can buy it over the counter when they need it. My hope is that ivermectin will become well known to patients and will get the FDA approval to be sold for Rosacea at a reasonable cost like over the counter vaginal yeast  infection creams. It makes me wonder if these vaginal creams would work in a pinch in place of Metronidazole if you can't get into see a dermatologist in a reasonable amount of time?

I also wonder if there are safer products than a pesticide (ivermectin) to put on your face that will get rid of demodex infestations. Much like how researchers are working on using good bacteria to over run bad bacteria instead of using antibiotics that wipes out the good with the bad. Or like fisheries do and put sterile Muskies (fish) into lakes to eat up the invasive non native Squaw fish who decimate native fish species.

The ivermectin apparently kills the mites. The metronidazole is an antibiotic and helps heal any bacterial infection that you may be experiencing. Sometimes dermatologists also prescribe taking oral antibiotics, i.e., doxycycline, along with the ivermectin, the gold standard that Galderma uses. I am happy for you that your ivermectin/metronidazole treatment is improving your skin. It usually takes twelve weeks for clearance and after that using a maintenance treatment, say two times a week or when you feel it is necessary. Thanks for the links to the TED talks. 

The Russian study on demodex is illuminating as well as the demodex update post. 

As for vaginal yeast infections, antibiotics don't work well on such, but anti-fungals do. There simply isn't much research on anti-fungals and rosacea, or for that matter the rest of the skin microbiome. Bacteria only takes up a small percentage of the human microbiome, yet research has been overwhelming in favor of looking at bacteria for over a hundred and fifty years which focuses on antibiotic treatment. This bias toward bacteria tends to ignore other microorganisms, i.e., virus, fungus, archea,  protozoa, helminths, demodex, and the list continues to grow. 

Candida albicans (a fungus or yeast) and rosacea have been linked in at least one research paper.

[Guide]

I have tried the Soolantra and posted my results here. I have tried the Durvet horse paste and prefer it over Soolantra. I like the horse paste 'gel' better than the oily 'cetaphil' Basis for the Vehicle in Soolantra. Hope you have good results with Soolantra, since many do report it works for them. 

As for your eyes, many have reported that the Cliradex towels work. As for shampoo there are a number of tea tree oil shampoos that many have reported works for them, i.e., Ovante or DS Shampoo, and there are many others. 

Ivermectin generally takes 12 weeks for clearance, after that, you can figure out your own maintenance routine, hopefully, one or twice a week. 

As for the human microbiome, there are ten times as many virus in a human as there are bacteria. The Russians and Eastern Europeans have traditionally looked into using bacteriophage (virus) for over ninety years and are way ahead of Western Medicine into research on this subject, using bacteriophage as an 'antibiotic' in treatment of disease. The Western bias of focusing on bacteria as the culprit of everything and dismissing all the other microbes besides bacteria clouds the health issue. For more information on the human microbiome. 

[Guide]

8 hours ago, Trillium said:

Cordain is one of the advisors here and that is enough  to have me remove my postings here.

Sorry to hear that since I have enjoyed your posts. Dr. Cordain wrote the Paleo Diet, which is a high protein diet, similar to my Rosacea Diet, the Atkins Diet, Protein Power by Drs. Eades. I recall you wrote something in this thread about Dr. Cordain regarding his use of references?  I invited him to volunteer on the RRDi MAC because there are many rosaceans who have posted that eating high protein and avoiding carbohydrate, especially sugar improves rosacea. Dr. Cordain rarely posts here, as you will find out, most of the MAC members rarely post since they are all living very busy lives. 

[Apurva Tathe]

Trillium

On 8/22/2019 at 11:16 PM, Trillium said:

Cordain is one of the advisors here and that is enough  to have me remove my postings here.

Hii Trillium, I read one of your posts about using metronidazole topical cream with ivermectin. I do not know much about the duo combination of creams in terms of results but I know about metronidazole cream which my doctors had prescribed me and you have already made your point and explanation of how these creams work. so its no use discussing the same thing but with my experience why we should use antibiotics instead of steroids for rosacea is that steroids exacerbate the conditions of rosacea. you will have heard about the steroidal rosacea. My skin improved a lot using metronidazole cream with oral antibiotics.

(your one more point about you were told rosacea is an autoimmune disease but it's just an infestation.) It is not completely right. though it is not an autoimmune disease but it is a chronic skin inflammatory disease which primarily includes immune cells and system. It has similarities with autoimmune conditions in terms of deregulation and misguiding of immune cells but then it's all about different immune cells playing their parts and contributing to these conditions. Infact the skin-microbiome interaction in rosacea is what alters the immune cells creating inflammatory response and vice-versa.very few research is going on this topic about does immune-compromised condition cause microbiome to increase in number or vice-versa.

[JohnIR]

Hello.

I decided to try a home made batch of Ivermectin and Cetaphil so I followed the directions but got some odd results.
First, it looks like the mixture is not holding together. After mixing it and allowing it to sit in a container for awhile some (or all) of the yellowish Ivermectin comes out of the mixture and ‘floats’ separately in streaks. Each time I use it I have to remix it.

Second, the newly mixed substance doesn’t hold together to spread it on uniformly. As I spread it some of it forms small clumps and the rest of it becomes a clear paste/oil. It is not at all like Soolantra.

What is happening?

Thanks

John

 

 

[Guide]

On 9/2/2020 at 9:15 AM, JohnIR said:

Hello.

I decided to try a home made batch of Ivermectin and Cetaphil so I followed the directions but got some odd results.
First, it looks like the mixture is not holding together. After mixing it and allowing it to sit in a container for awhile some (or all) of the yellowish Ivermectin comes out of the mixture and ‘floats’ separately in streaks. Each time I use it I have to remix it.

Second, the newly mixed substance doesn’t hold together to spread it on uniformly. As I spread it some of it forms small clumps and the rest of it becomes a clear paste/oil. It is not at all like Soolantra.

What is happening?

Thanks

John

 

 

Hi John, 

Welcome to the RRDi. I am not an expert on this and immediately thought of Tom Busby who I asked what his advice would be for you. Tom is kind and immediately replied to my inquiry and here is his response: 

------------------begin Tom Busby response:

Hi Brady:
 
You could reply and advise that he would google ivermectin solubility.  This will show that ivermectin is soluble in methanol (rubbing alcohol) or 95% ethanol (EverClear).  However, he will need to determine the best way to dissolve it, which probably involves heating the alcohol/ivermectin mix, perhaps at a 50/50 ratio, to about 150F.  The problem is that heat and/or alcohol will probably break the emulsion in Cetaphil, which is weak to begin with.  The dump-in method is better than nothing, but barely. 
 
Or, he could try the double dump-in method, where the alcohol/ivermectin mix is poured into hot oil, perhaps MCT oil at 150F, and then the hot oil/ivermectin/alcohol mix is dummped into Cetaphil.  
 
It’s very difficult to teach this, and he’ll have to have plenty of ivermectin to experiment on what works via trial and error.
 
Sincerely,
Tom

----------------end Tom Busby response. 

I hope this helps you in your search on how to dissolve the Ivermectin correctly into Cetaphil. My personal advice is to find a compounding pharmacist who knows how to do this correctly. An easier and cheapest way is to simply get horse paste. 

Brady 

 

[JimR]

You can buy liquid  Ivermectin injectable which is already at 1%, and just put it on you face at night. I just got a 250ml bottle for $68, at a feed store.

Another solution that works is borax mixed with Hydrogen peroxide.  You have to dilute the 3% HP to 1% so 2 parts water 1 part HP.

Add borax until it stops dissolving into the liquid and you see it settling to the bottom. Add small amounts until you see it no dissolving not the liquid anymore.