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Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized Pharmacists will prescribe Pfizer’s antiviral drug Covid-19 Paxlovid to eligible patients, a move that could help boost efforts to make the contraceptive pill more widely available as coronavirus positivity rates tend to rise.
Paxlovid tablets for the treatment of Covid-19 pass through a filling line.
key facts
Pharmacists can now prescribe the pills – which were first licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in December – to coronavirus patients 12 years and older who are at higher risk of severe Covid-19, after reviewing patients’ health records and drug lists.
Because the drug must be taken within five days of symptoms starting, allowing state-licensed pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid could “extend access to timely treatment” to those who qualify, Patrizia Cavazzoni, MD, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation. and American Drug and Research, said in a statement.
Previously, the tablets were usually prescribed by health care providers or at “treatment test” sites set up through the federal government.
Huge number
80 million. This is the number of Paxlovid Pfizer cycles He said It hopes to achieve it by the end of 2022. Pfizer announced last month that it would spend $120 billion to boost baxiloid production.
main background
Some scientists have considered the antiviral drug Pfizer – which is about 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations from Covid-19 – as a critical tool in the fight against Covid. The pill was the first effective oral antiviral treatment approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, and White House officials in recent months have been pushing for better access to the drug. In March, the Biden administration announced “treatment test” sites across the country where people could be tested for the coronavirus and receive COVID treatments if they tested positive. Some criticized the program experts who say it hasn’t significantly accelerated access to the drug. Pharmacists have been pushing for permission to prescribe antiviral treatment, arguing that such a move would also improve access. The FDA’s decision comes as daily Covid cases have stabilized at around 100,000 in recent weeks, more than triple the nearly 30,000 daily cases recorded in early April, as the highly contagious Omicron BA.5 variant became prevalent. – but still well below 800,000 cases in January per day.
the shadow
After taking Baxlovid, some patients reported a “rebound infection” where they tested positive again for MERS after the infection was initially cleared with a five-day course of treatment. Anthony Fauci, the White House coronavirus adviser, who tested positive for COVID in June said CNN Last week he experienced a rebound after taking the drug, which he said helped keep him out of the hospital. Those with rebound infections are even able to spread the coronavirus, according to a paper published in May and not yet reviewed. It’s unclear how frequent reflux infections are and why they occur, but cases appear to be mild.
in-depth reading
The US Food and Drug Administration allows pharmacists to prescribe Baxlovid treatment for COVID (Axios)
Pfizer spends $ 120 million to boost Baxolvid production (Forbes)
Fauci says Covid recovered after Paxlovid (CNN)
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