x
Breaking News
More () »

White House promises to make Paxlovid more accessible

Pfizer's anti-viral pill was in peak demand during the omicron surge.

MINNEAPOLIS — Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced that it will be increasing access to Paxlovid, Pfizer's anti-viral pill.

The coveted treatment was in high demand during January's omicron surge, but now, apparently supply is keeping up with demand, according to University of Minnesota professor of medicine, Dr. David Boulware.

"The supply in Minnesota is quite good so all the health systems have it, and it is something that there's ample supply of," Boulware said.

The pills, still under emergency use authorization, are meant for patients who are at a higher risk of severe illness from a COVID-19 infection, like those who are diabetic, overweight or undergoing immunosuppressive treatment.

"If you're vaccinated and you're otherwise healthy, age is under 60 and you don't have medical comorbidities, the EUA is currently not for those sort of people at present," Boulware clarified.

However, getting Paxlovid does come with challenges even still, hence this push from the White House.

"There's a lot of complicating factors here," Boulware said. "People have to get tested within five days of symptom onset, they need to connect with their primary physician or someone in the emergency room or wherever they may get tested to actually then prescribe the medicine, they need to go get the medicine, so that's about three different steps."

RELATED: First shipments of COVID treatments arrive in Minnesota

The short window within which a patient would need to get tested, prompted the test-to-treat response from the White House, promising more federally backed sites where patients can get tested, seen by a medical provider and walk out with Paxlovid.

The medical provider part is crucial because Paxlovid also has a lot of drug-to-drug interactions.

"Physicians deal with drug-drug interactions all the time and so the medicines interactions are known so it is something that is relatively automated within the electronic med records that systems use in Minnesota," Boulware explained. "It is something that can be done, but it is a little bit of a — for the first time, if you're the prescriber, you go, 'How exactly do I do this? Where do they need to go to pick it up?'"

Plus, Boulware says the barriers of access to the most vulnerable still remain, for example, for folks who may not have insurance.

"Those are the people that at most benefit of this medicine but yet they are also the least likely to access the healthcare system to get tested promptly," Boulware added. He also says he believes Paxlovid will stick around.

"It's a very effective medicine and it's fairly safe," he said. "I haven't really heard of any toxicity or any problems with the medicines, there has been some rebound cases that seem to be rare, and it's something certainly of interest, we haven't heard much about resistance developing. So yeah, I think it is a legitimate longer term therapy."

RELATED: Pfizer's Paxlovid and what we know

Watch more Breaking The News:

Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist:

Before You Leave, Check This Out