On January 10, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced the purchase of 340,000 doses of Paxlovid, the new antiviral drug against covid from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Along with Spain, where it is expected to arrive before the end of the month, a long list of countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Mexico are betting on this new therapeutic resource to try to turn the pandemic around , in full challenge of the Ómicron variant. “A turning point,” US President Joe Biden dared to say when earlier this year he announced that he was doubling the Paxlovid order. “It seems to me that it is a tool that can be very useful, but it must be used in a timely manner, and in the right patients for the benefit to take place”, clarifies Jesús Sierra, coordinator of the registry of the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy (SEFH). ), a database of 16,000 patients to study drugs associated with lower mortality from covid. “We are not talking about a massive use of this drug,” Sierra abounds, explaining that it is only indicated for patients with a high risk of progressing to a serious disease.
One of the great benefits of this new drug that is taken orally is that the treatment can be followed from home, so it does not increase the pressure in hospitals or health centers. Alberto Borobia, coordinator of the clinical trials unit at Madrid’s La Paz hospital, speaks about its effectiveness: “With an early diagnosis, of less than five days, this drug reduces the probability of admission from approximately 7% to 1% in the population who had fallen into the placebo group that receives this treatment”, Borobia points out about the clinical trials that the company has advertised. Data on the Ómicron variant is still lacking, but Borobia assures that “what is expected” is that it will be effective.
Elena Múñez, from the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine, explains how this new drug works against the virus and warns of some limitations, but celebrates its upcoming arrival in Spain. “If it could be given in a generalized way, it could change the progression of the disease. The same thing that vaccination has done before.”
Paxlovid is not the only oral antiviral authorized by the EMA. Molnupiravir, from Merck & Co, which is already distributed in the United Kingdom, also has this endorsement, but the latest data from the company itself indicated a much lower efficacy of 30%.
You can find this and other data in the video that accompanies this information.
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