Staff Reporter: Coronavirus treatment oral tablets will be available in the US market very soon. The drug, called Paxlovid, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday. This is the first antiviral drug of Covid-19.
Sick people can take this medicine at home before they are sick enough to be hospitalized. Anyone over the age of 12 and weighing at least 88 pounds can take the drug if they are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus. However, if you want to buy the medicine, you must need a doctor’s prescription.
The FDA said in a statement that the drug could be started as soon as possible after the detection of Covid-19 and within five days of the onset of symptoms.
A few more antiviral drugs can be used with Paxlovid. Newly made Nirmatralevir and old Ritonavir and Paxlovid can be used twice a day for up to five days.
Pfizer released an updated result last week. It found that high-risk patients had a 89 percent reduction in hospital admissions or mortality if treatment was started within a few days of the first symptoms. Although applied within the first five days of symptoms, its effectiveness is almost the same (88 percent).
Last November, the Biden administration announced that it would purchase 10 million doses of the drug. President Joe Biden said he was encouraged by Pfizer’s success stories and believed the drug would help take a big step toward ending the epidemic.
BP/SM