WHO strongly recommends Pfizer's Paxlovid, but global demand for Paxlovid is declining

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its COVID-19 treatment guidelines, strongly recommending that Pfizer's new crown oral antiviral drug Paxlovid be used to treat mild and poisoned COVID-19 patients

Pfizer's Paxlovid is an oral small molecule anti-COVID-19 drug for the treatment of adults with mild to moderate novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) with high risk factors for progression to severe disease

This recommendation is based on the latest data from two randomized controlled trials involving 3078 participants

But the WHO has also raised concerns about Paxlovid's availability, lack of price transparency and the need for fast and accurate tests to manage money

The lack of price transparency makes it difficult for WHO to know exactly how the drug is available, which countries are involved in the transaction, and how much it costs to deliver it

Currently, the WHO lists Paxlovid on the WHO prequalification list, but there is no quality-assured source for generic drug products

Paxlovid global demand declines

In fact, according to the results of Pfizer's investigational new COVID-19 oral antiviral drug candidate Paxlovid, which will be announced in 2021, an interim analysis showed that the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in high-risk COVID-19 patients by 89%

Many countries have large deals with Pfizer for Paxlovid

But global demand for Pfizer's new coronavirus oral antiviral drug Paxlovid unexpectedly fell, according to a recent Reuters analysis

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Meanwhile, some doctors and pharmacists say the switch from lab testing to home testing could leave high-risk patients without medication because they don't realize they're eligible for treatment

In addition, it has recently been reported that some patients still report a recurrence of COVID-19 symptoms after taking Paxlovid

Infectious disease experts said the Paxlovid rebound showed that patients could still be contagious and spread the virus to others

Paxlovid's rebound problem is also reflected in the FDA's analysis of Paxlovid's EUA data ———"[S]everal subjects appeared to have a rebound in SARS-CoV-2 RNA levels around Day 10 or Day 14, although this occurred among subjects with or without potential resistance-associated substitutions detected at Day 1 or Day 5.

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