WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer’s COVID-19 tablet appears to bring little or no advantage to young adults, while reducing the threat of hospitalization and death in high-risk seniors, according to a giant released Wednesday.
The effects of an Israeli study of 109,000 patients are likely to renew questions about the U. S. government’s use of Paxlovid. In the U. S. , it has become the gold folk remedy for COVID-19 due to its comfort at home. Biden’s management has spent more than $10 billion. buy the drug and make it available in thousands of pharmacies through their testing and treatment initiative.
The researchers found that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations in other people age 65 and older by about 75% when given some time after infection. This is consistent with the above effects used to license the drug in the United States and other countries.
But other people in their 40s and 65s didn’t see any measurable benefits, according to research from medical records.
The study has limitations because of its design, which collected data from a large Israeli fitness formula rather than enrolling patients in a randomized study with one organization: the popular gold for medical research.
The findings reflect the changing nature of the pandemic, in which the vast majority of people already have some coverage against the virus through vaccination or a past infection. For young adults, in particular, this particularly reduces the threat of severe COVID-19 headaches. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that 95% of Americans over the age of 16 have acquired some point of immunity to the virus.
“Paxlovid will continue to be vital for others with the maximum threat of severe COVID-19, such as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems,” said Dr. David Boulware, a researcher and physician at the University of Minnesota, who was not worried. in the studio. ” But for the vast majority of Americans who are now eligible, it doesn’t have many benefits. “
A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on the findings, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The U. S. Food and Drug AdministrationThe U. S. Department of Homeland Security legalized Paxlovid expired last year for adults and youth 12 years of age and older at high risk due to situations such as obesity, diabetes and downtown disease. More than 42% of U. S. adults. U. S. americans are obese, accounting for 138 million Americans, according to the CDC.
At the time of the FDA’s decision, there were no features to treat COVID-19 at home, and Paxlovid was thought to be imperative to reducing hospitalizations and deaths at the time of the pandemic’s winter outbreak. The effects of the drug were also much more potent than a tablet from Merck’s competition.
The FDA made its decision on a Pfizer screening in high-risk patients who had not been vaccinated or treated for a previous COVID-19 infection.
“These other people exist, but they are rare because most people have now been vaccinated or infected,” Boulware said.
Pfizer reported earlier this summer that a separate study of Paxlovid in healthy, vaccinated and unvaccinated adults showed significant benefit. These effects have not yet been published in a medical journal.
More than 3. 9 million paxlovid prescriptions have been filled since the drug was authorized, according to federal records. One treatment consists of 3 pills twice a day for five days.
A White House spokesman on Wednesday pointed to several recent reports suggesting Paxlovid is helping others 50 and older get hospitalized. The studies were not published in peer-reviewed journals.
“The threat of serious consequences from COVID is gradual, and the developing evidence framework shows that other people between the ages of 50 and 64 can also gain advantages from Paxlovid,” Munoz said in an emailed statement.
Administration officials have been striving for months to increase the use of Paxlovid, opening thousands of sites where patients who test positive can fill a prescription. Last month, U. S. officials said they were in the process of being able to do so. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security expanded further by allowing pharmacists to prescribe the drug.
The White House recently signaled that it would possibly soon avoid purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and testing, shifting the duty to the personal insurance market. Paxlovid.
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