The WHO has strongly recommended the antiviral drug Paxlovid from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer for patients with less severe forms of Covid-19 and “higher risk of hospitalization”. But as with Covid vaccines, the World Health Organization is “very concerned” that less wealthy countries will once again have difficulty accessing the drug.
For WHO experts, the combination of Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir “is the drug of choice” for unvaccinated, elderly or immunocompromised patients, according to an article in the British Journal of Medicine. For the same type of patients and symptoms, WHO also issued a “weak recommendation” for US lab Gilead’s Remdesivir, which it had previously advised against.
Paxlovid should be preferred over Merck’s Molnupiravir or Remdesivir, as well as monoclonal antibodies, the organization said, although it continues to support vaccination. “It is essential to prevent people from developing a severe form of the disease, from dying. And vaccination is a key intervention for prevention,” insisted Dr. Janet Diaz, head of the clinical response team for Covid-19, in a press briefing in Geneva.
Paxlovid “reduces hospitalization more than alternatives, has fewer potential risks than the antiviral molnupiravir, and is easier to administer than intravenous options such as remdesivir and antibody therapies. Studies have shown 84 fewer hospital admissions per 1,000.
patients, no “significant difference in mortality” and “little or no risk of complications leading to treatment discontinuation,” says the WHO. This recommendation does not apply to pregnant and breastfeeding women. It also does not apply to patients with a low risk of complications because the positive effects are minimal. The experts also refused to give an opinion for patients with a severe form of the disease due to a lack of data.