The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19, Paxlovid.
The breakthrough medication has been created by Pfizer and is now approved by the FDA for emergency use to treat COVID.
Pfizer said in a press release the drug could be used to treat mild to moderation COVID-19 cases in adults and children 12 years and older weighing at least 40kg.
What we know so far is that the new oral pill is going to be cheaper, faster and more effective in treating COVID-19.
The previously authorised treatments required an IV or injection as well so now, we have something for those who get a little squeamish around needles.
Fascinatingly, the drug is closely related to a family of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors, that are used to treat HIV and hepatitis C.
Paxlovid contains protease inhibitors, a class of drugs that wouldn't exist without the tireless efforts of ACT UP in the 1980s and 90s. Their thankless activism that was routinely mocked in the media and pop culture is now saving humanity. https://t.co/MflrUkB9RO
— Tyler the ✨𝓕𝓾𝓬𝓱𝓼𝓲𝓪𝓷✨ 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (@TylerAlbertario) December 22, 2021
The new medication is available by prescription only and is said to significantly reduce the risk of the virus becoming more severe.
Pfizer stated that there have been positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing and one study showed that the pill has early 90 per cent efficacy in preventing hospitalisation or death in high-risk patients.
It’s also effective against that annoying Omicron variant.
“It’s a stunning outcome,” Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten told Reuters.
“We’re talking about a staggering number of lives saved and hospitalisations prevented. And of course, if you deploy this quickly after infection, we are likely to reduce transmission dramatically.”
Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla said: “Today’s authorisation of Paxlovid represents another tremendous example of how science will help us ultimately defeat this pandemic, which, even two years in, continues to disrupt and devastate lives across the world.
“This breakthrough therapy, which has been shown to significantly reduce hospitalisations and deaths and can be taken at home, will change the way we treat Covid-19, and hopefully help reduce some of the significant pressures facing our healthcare and hospital systems.
“Pfizer stands ready to begin delivery in the US immediately to help get Paxlovid into the hands of appropriate patients as quickly as possible.”
The drug is expected to become available here in Aus sometime in 2022 but according to the Department of Health, it is still “subject to TGA approval”.
So let’s try not to get COVID before then, shall we?
