Thursday, November 18, 2021
Paxlovid for millions of citizens
USA is ordering corona pills on a large scale
Although Pfizer’s corona drug Paxlovid has not yet been approved, the U.S. government is ordering pills for ten million patients. US President Joe Biden hopes that the means will become a “central instrument”. The first pills should be delivered this year.
The US government has placed a large order for the as yet unapproved corona drug Paxlovid from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for ten million patients. The purchase price is just under 5.3 billion dollars (4.9 billion euros), as announced by the Department of Health in Washington and the US company. The order is subject to an emergency approval for the pill by the US Food and Drug Administration, as both sides made clear. The first packs should then be delivered before the end of the year.
The Pfizer Group, which already manufactures a corona vaccine with the German company Biontech, submitted an application to the FDA this week for emergency approval of the antiviral drug. Paxlovid is intended for corona patients with an increased risk of a severe course of the disease. According to a clinical study, the pill reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent.
Patients should take the drug twice a day for five days. Paxlovid reduces the ability of the coronavirus to multiply in the body’s cells and thus slows down the further development of the Covid-19 disease. The new active ingredient is combined with the drug ritonavir, which is already used to treat HIV patients.
“Central instrument in our arsenal”
Paxlovid and the drug molnupiravir developed by the US pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) have the advantage that they can be easily taken at home. Other agents such as the antiviral drug Remdesivir, on the other hand, have to be administered intravenously and thus in a hospital.
US President Joe Biden described the Paxlovid order as “good news”: “This treatment could prove to be another key tool in our arsenal to accelerate our way out of the pandemic.” Biden emphasized again, however, that vaccinations are the best protection against the coronavirus – and called on the population to get vaccinated: “Don’t wait. Get vaccinated today.” Vaccinations are “safe, free and readily available”.
In the USA, just under 71 percent of adults and just under 59 percent of the total population have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Experts do not think this is sufficient – and warn of a renewed increase in the number of infections in winter. There are many vaccine skeptics and opponents of vaccination in the USA.