What is Pfizer’s antiviral and what does it do against covid?

Vaccines have saved lives, but they have not been able to prevent the collapse of primary care and hospital strain. Pfizer’s new antiviral Paxlovidhas as purpose avoid serious medical conditions and has shown about 90% efficient in the studios.

In fact, Pedro Sánchez has already announced that Spain will acquire 344,000 doses this January.

The patients

This pill is intended to patients who have already tested positive and that they run the risk of disease progresses severelywhich may lead to hospitalization or even the death. Therefore, it is not a pill to prevent the disease, nor a substitute for the vaccine, nor does it serve as a treatment for people who already have a serious illness.

How does it work

Treatment is a combination of two antivirals: a new one (the nirmatrelvir) and one of classic (the ritonavir), which is also used against HIV. According to the company, nirmatrelvir is a strong inhibitor of the 3CL protease that the virus needs to replicate.

The antiviral must be administer as soon as possible after receiving the positive diagnosis of covid and in the five days following the onset of symptoms.

are administered three tablets (two of nirmatrelvir and one of ritonavir) that must be taken at the same time and twice a day, for five days. Therefore, 30 tablets.

problematic

The main problem with the Pfizer pill is that there are medicines with those who are incompatible due to the presence of ritonavir. The list of drugs that cannot be taken with Paxlovid can be found in its SmPC. It is also not indicated for patients with liver disease or severe kidney failure. In patients with moderate renal insufficiency, the dose should be reduced. For these reasons, the covid pill should always be prescribed by a professional.

the possible side effects are the taste disturbance, diarrhea, arterial hypertension Y muscle pains.

Results

In the studios, Paxlovid reduced in a 89% the number of hospitalizations or deaths from covid. The percentage of hospitalizations was 0.8% in the group given the pill, while in the group given placebo it reached 7% and there were nine deaths.