When antiviral pills are approved, mandates need to go
3¿]HU &(2 $OEHUW %RXUOD RQ 7XHVGD\ hailed his company’s antiviral pill Paxlovid as a “game changer” after ¿QDO WULDO GDWD VKRZHG LW UHGXFHG ULVN RI hospitalization among high-risk groups by nearly 90%.
An antiviral pill that prevents serious illness, to be taken soon after people develop symptoms, has long been understood as a path to easing the pandemic. Alas, the National Institutes of Health and Biden Administration were slow to invest in oral treatments, which is one reason the pills have taken longer to develop than have vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.
9DFFLQHV DUH HQRUPRXVO\ EHQH¿FLDO but as we’ve discovered, vaccine protection against infection wanes with time and against some Covid variants. This leaves older people and those with certain health conditions at higher risk for severe illness.
Monoclonal antibodies have been helpful, but they’re also susceptible to mutations. German researchers said Tuesday that Eli Lilly and Regeneron monoclonals lost most of their
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Enter Paxlovid, which was found to reduce hospitalization or death by 88% in high-risk groups when taken ZLWKLQ ¿YH GD\V RI V\PSWRP RQVHW 7KH antiviral inhibits the machinery the virus uses to replicate so it’s less likely to be GRGJHG E\ QHZ YDULDQWV 3¿]HU VD\V WKH drug blocked Omicron in lab tests.
Once the FDA approves Paxlovid, Americans who test positive for Covid could request that their doctor prescribe 3D[ORYLG OLNH 7DPLÀX ZKHQ WKH\ JHW WKH ÀX $ERXW $PHULFDQV D GD\ DUH currently dying of Covid, so making Paxlovid widely available could save tens of thousands of lives this winter.
The Biden Administration last month ordered 10 million courses at a cost of $5.3 billion. While the pills are relatively inexpensive to produce, their cost of
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3¿]HU KDV VXEPLWWHG GDWD IRU emergency use authorization, and the FDA has every reason to approve it as quickly as possible. Individuals who received the drug showed no worse side H൵HFWV WKDQ WKRVH ZKR JRW WKH SODFHER VR there don’t appear to be safety concerns.
As manufacturing and supply ramp up, the government may recommend that Paxlovid be prescribed only for WKRVH DW KLJKHU &RYLG ULVN %XW 3¿]HU¶V preliminary trial data showed that younger, healthy people who got the pill experienced a 70% decline in KRVSLWDOL]DWLRQ 7KH\ ZRXOG EHQH¿W IURP broader authorization.
3¿]HU¶V VWXG\ DOVR VKRZHG D fold reduction in viral load, which suggests it could substantially reduce transmission. Once Paxlovid becomes widely available, government travel restrictions and mandates will be even more unnecessary.