08/09/2022

Everything You Need to Know About Paxlovid

This antiviral is very effective at protecting vulnerable people from COVID

When President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 in July, he was prescribed Paxlovid—an antiviral that helps the body fight off the virus. This prescription drug can be taken outside of a hospital, meaning that highly vulnerable people, if infected, can use it at home to stop themselves from developing severe and potentially life-threatening COVID symptoms.

Paxlovid became the world’s first oral Covid antiviral when it was authorized for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency back in December 2021. With regulators green-lighting the drug less than a year after the first person received it in clinical trials, it has been described as the fastest drug-development project in history.

Since then, Paxlovid has been approved by the European Medicines Agency, and the United Nations struck a deal with manufacturers to produce a generic version of it so that millions of doses can be supplied to low- and middle-income countries, beginning in April 2022.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.