The National Cancer Institute is using federal funds to study whether cancer can be cured by ivermectin, a cheap, off-patent anti-parasitic and deworming drug that fringe medical groups falsely claimed could treat COVID-19 during the pandemic and have since touted as a cure-all.

Large, high-quality clinical trials have resoundingly concluded that ivermectin is not effective against COVID-19. And there is no old or new scientific evidence to support a hypothesis that ivermectin can cure cancer—or justify any such federal expenditure. But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who is otherwise well-known for claiming to have a parasitic worm in his brain—numerous members of the medical fringe are now in powerful federal positions or otherwise hold sway with the administration.

During a January 30 event, Anthony Letai, a cancer researcher the Trump administration installed as the director of the NCI in September, said the NCI was pursuing ivermectin.

“There are enough reports of it, enough interest in it, that we actually did—ivermectin, in particular—did engage in sort of a better preclinical study of its properties and its ability to kill cancer cells and we’ll probably have those results in a few months. So we are taking it seriously.”

The comments were highlighted today in a report from KFF Health News. Ars Technica was also at the event, “Reclaiming Science: The People’s NIH,” which was hosted by the MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] Institute. In the rest of his comments, Letai seemed to make a noticeable effort to temper expectations while also trying to avoid offending any ivermectin believers. “It’s not going to be a cure-all for cancer,” he said. At another point, he said that even if there are signals of anti-cancer properties in the preclinical studies, “I can tell you again, it’s not a really strong signal.”