Paxlovid Becoming More Popular COVID-19 Treatment But Doctors Prescribe It Only to Specific Patients; Who Can Take the Drug?

Because of the BA.5 variant dominant, as well as the rising number of other Omicron subvariants spreading in the United States, COVID-19 is becoming more and more difficult to avoid,

Fortunately, as specified in a TIME report, Paxlovid, the antiviral treatment of Pfizer, can minimize the infection from the disease.

However, this drug is not for everyone. As stated in US Food and Drug Administration press release, only people at risk for severe infection from COVID-19 can take medicine, including those over 12 years old who have weakened immune systems or other health conditions that increase the danger of severe effects of COVID-19.

Among these health conditions include liver disease, heart ailment, asthma, obesity, and cancer. Paxlovid comes with a list of probable negative fractions and common drugs like cholesterol-lowering statins.

Paxlovid Authorization

Since Paxlovid is not approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, although allowed under an emergency use authorization, doctors generally cannot prescribe it outside the criteria for such approval.

That is not stopping people, regardless of age and risk profiles, from wanting to take the pill, which had gone from hard-to-find to a more accessible drug in only a few months.

From December last year, when Paxlovid was authorized, prescriptions for the drug have risen from 2,500 to almost a million in the U.S. provided by Iqvia, a health-data company.

Research carried out by Pfizer before the authorization of Paxlovid showed that the drug decreases the risk of hospital admission and death by up to 89 percent among unvaccinated individuals at high risk for adverse COVID-19 results.

Paxlovid Not for Healthy, Asymptomatic People

The effectiveness has turned less impressive as vaccination increased. Pfizer's most recent data revealed that Paxlovid is approximately 57 percent efficient at attaining such outcomes in vaccinated individuals at lower risk of serious illness like those at least with one of the risk factors that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

Despite the growing popularity of the drug, for rather healthy people, not to mention those at high risk of developing severe illness, there are limited data that back the benefits of taking antivirus medicines like Paxlovid.

An average healthy individual, even a 55-year-old person without major medical conditions, might not benefit and complain of the bad taste in his mouth, which is a common side effect of the drug, explained Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an infectious disease physician.

Prescription According to Age

Even for those with symptoms without other health conditions, Adalja does not prescribe Paxlovid unless patients are 65 years old and above. That, this TIME report said, is a common yardstick that doctors begin using.

However, there are no hard and fast rules, even in terms of age. Emergency physician Dr. William Durkin from Alvarado Medical Center in San Diego recently decided not to give an older patient Paxlovid as he was otherwise healthy and did not show any symptoms.

For patients without symptoms, when they test positive, doctors may proactively prescribe Paxlovil and tell their patients to reach out if they develop symptoms in one day or so.

Since the drug is most effective if taken within five days of symptoms showing, having the prescription ready could guarantee that people are taking advantage of the short window in which the drug takes effect.

Related information about Paxlovid is shown on MedCram's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on COVID-19 in Science Times.