The White House on Tuesday unveiled new steps aimed at making Pfizer’s highly effective COVID-19 treatment pills more widely available, saying more lives could be saved if use of the pills increases.
Pfizer’s treatment pills, known as Paxlovid, have been licensed since December and are seen as a key step in moving to a new phase of the pandemic in which the virus is more manageable. But the administration acknowledged reports that some patients are having trouble accessing them and that awareness among the public and doctors can be improved.
To increase availability, the administration announced Tuesday morning that the number of sites where the pills are available would soon increase from 20,000 to 30,000, and that it will work with pharmacies to increase that number to 40,000 “over the next few weeks.” ”.
Officials will also explore federally-backed “test-to-treat” sites, where patients can get tested for COVID-19 and, if positive, have a chance to have pills prescribed immediately. The new sites would expand the 2,200 currently available.
Eligibility is for people at “high risk of progression to severe COVID-19,” but a senior administration official said that definition could fit a wide range of people, up to 60 percent of adults who test positive, including people with diabetes or obesity. .
The administration will step up educating doctors, including with an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Monday, to encourage them to prescribe them to people who are eligible.
“Although there was initially a shortage of Paxlovid after authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Administration has worked with Pfizer to expedite the delivery of these pills, and there is now an ample supply,” the White House said in a statement. release.
A senior administration official added that doctors should break out of a “scarcity mentality” around the drug and understand that more people can get it now compared to the limited supply in the early days.
Increasing access to pills is seen as a key way to stamp out the virus and ensure stronger measures like mask mandates are not needed. Paxlovid has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 90 percent, but the course of treatment must begin within five days of the onset of symptoms.
Asked why the administration hasn’t provided detailed numbers on how many people are using the pills, as it has for vaccines, a senior administration official provided some figures at a news conference Monday.
The official said some 500,000 courses of antiviral treatment have been provided so far and usage has risen from about 22,000 courses a week a month ago to about 55,000 a week now.
Reference-thehill.com