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The studies, conducted by a team led by Israel’s Clalit Health Service, referred to a study of 109,254 COVID patients over the age of 40, 3,902 of whom received the drug, nirmatrelvir, which is part of Pfizer’s combination pill, Paxlovid. It found that in patients over the age of 65, treatment with nirmatrelvir some time after infection reduced hospitalizations by about 75%, a location consistent with previous analyses used as a basis for approval of the drug in the UK, US, and CANADA. USA and other places. However, patients older than 40 to 65 years did not see a significant difference between those who won the drug and those who did not.
In their paper, the team wrote: “During the outbreak of the omicron variant, in adults aged 65 years or older, severe COVID-19 outcome rates were particularly lower in those receiving nirmatrelvir than in those not receiving nirmatrelvir.
“However, there is no evidence of discovered benefits in young adults. “
The researchers admitted that their design had some limitations, namely in the way they received existing knowledge of the Israeli fitness system.
To achieve the golden popularity of medical research, the team would have to enroll patients in a randomized study with a group.
However, either way, the effects of the study could raise doubts about the long-term application of Paxlovid, especially in the United States, where it has a popular treatment, largely because patients can administer it comfortably. of their own houses. .
Biden’s management has purchased the drug worth more than $10 billion (£8. 5 billion), making it available at thousands of pharmacies in every state through its testing and traceability initiative, with more than 3. 9 million prescriptions for the drug already filled.
According to experts, the explanation for why nirmatrelvir is less effective in young adults is that, at this point in the pandemic, most have evolved some coverage against the virus, through past infections, vaccination or both.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 95% of Americans of legal age have acquired a point of immunity to SARS-CoV-2.
This way, they are less at the severe headaches of contracting the virus.
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Professor David Boulware is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in this study.
He told The Associated Press that “Paxlovid will continue to be for those most at risk for severe COVID-19, such as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
“But for the vast majority of Americans who are now eligible, it doesn’t have many benefits. “
The study that expired last year until the approval of Paxlovid by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. U. S. in high-risk patients over the age of 12 was performed only on subjects who had not been vaccinated or contracted covid before.
As Professor Boulware explained: “These other people exist, but they are rare because most people have already been vaccinated or infected.
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A Pfizer spokesman declined to comment on the new findings.
However, the effects reported by the company earlier this year in a separate, recently unpublished study.
It is understood that Paxlovid found no significant benefit in healthy adults, whether they were vaccinated or not.
The full effects of the were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.