There’s another tool in the fight against COVID-19 and B.C.’s top doctor said it will help prevent more serious illness if it’s given to people early on.
Health Canada authorized the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid Monday, and it’s the first oral and at-home prescription medication to be cleared for use in the country.
In a news conference Tuesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry said the antiviral treatment is designed specifically for individuals at the highest risk of developing more severe illness and ending up in hospital.
“It includes those people in our community who are over age 70, clinically extremely vulnerable, immune compromised and for younger people who have additional medical conditions and don’t have the protection of vaccines.”
University of British Columbia associate professor and drug safety researcher Mahyar Etminan said the treatment should not be viewed as a magic bullet.
“We don’t really have any data on children or healthy adults,” he said. “So primarily, it was studied in adults who had COVID symptoms and had one other medical condition.”
Etminan said the efficacy numbers being shared by the company for the treatment also need to be put in perspective.
“Unfortunately, the way they presented the data is this relative risk reduction metric, which tends to sort of overestimate the efficacy,” he said, and noted Pfizer has reported an 88 per cent reduction of either hospitalization or death relative to the placebo group.
“In absolute numbers, it’s about a six per cent benefit…if 16 such participants took the drugs, one would benefit.”
“It’s also important to know that the data we have is data provided by the company,” he said. “We still don’t have any peer-reviewed data from this study.”
Source: COVID pill: How B.C. plans to distribute the just-approved treatment | CTV News
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