Corona patients aged twelve and over who have tested positive with mild to moderate symptoms and a high risk of worsening the disease are to be treated with Paxlovid. According to the FDA, it is the first Covid drug in the US that can be taken in pill form.
The drug is said to be available on prescription in the US but free of charge. The US government said it had bought ten million cans for $ 5.3 billion. Deliveries could start this year. In Europe, the EMA announced in mid-November that it had started an investigation into the Covid-19 drug.
According to the company from the beginning of November, the corona pill is very successful in preventing serious illnesses in high-risk patients. An interim analysis of test results found the drug reduced the risk of hospital admissions and death in Covid-19 patients by 89 percent, according to Pfizer. Possible side effects include impaired taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure, and muscle pain.
Drugs like paxlovid are considered by experts to be a pillar of the fight against coronavirus. Compared to preventive vaccinations, however, they are significantly more expensive and often more complicated to use. Paxlovid should be administered a maximum of five days after the onset of symptoms. Before they were approved, they were tested in fewer people than the vaccines – which have also been administered billions of times around the world for months and are being monitored in parallel. The FDA also said on Wednesday that the drug that has now been approved is no substitute for a vaccination for the general public.
Paxlovid consists, among other things, of the active ingredient Nirmatrelvir, which inhibits a Sars-CoV-2 protein. This is to stop the virus from multiplying.
Source: Nachrichten
