Pfizer he did it again, he not only hit the Big Ball with his covid-19 vaccine but also gave governments a pill for the same disease that has been a resounding failure. Health paid 238 million to Pfizer for Paxlovid a year ago: 691 euros for each of the 344,000 treatments.
Now, a year later, There are no updated figures on the dispensing of Paxlovid in Spain. but the truth is that the pills are dying of boredom on the pharmaceutical shelves and this May the batches begin to expire.
And it is that when in January 2022 it was approved Pfizer’s anti-Covid pill: Paxlovid was made with permission from emergency usewhile tests continue to demonstrate its efficacy and safety.
But using this “so promising” drug in infected patients does not seem to have any clinical relevance. It is a drug to treat adult patients with Covid-19 who do not require supplemental oxygen and who have a higher risk of progressing to serious disease.
That is, Paxlovid is indicated for specific cases of Covidnot for everyone to take preventively.
And this has been key to its failure… although Pfizer will be laughing because the business they already did it by selling these treatments.
Results from clinical trials showed that Paxlovid prevents hospitalizations and saves lives in patients with high risk of severe Covid. But it is that the results of the clinical trials carried out by the manufacturer were published in a Press release!, not in a serious scientific publication.
This, let’s remember that Pfizer already did it with its Covid vaccine. Press release for bad journalists to “cut and paste” so that only what interests them is published. Marketing instead of science.
Efficacy results then (provided by the manufacturer and primary –inconclusive-) do not encourage the use of this pill. But then there is the issue of drug safety (or lack thereof).
He The main problem with the treatment is its safety.. As the FDA states in its note:
Among the possible Paxlovid side effects are the alteration of the sense of taste, diarrhea, high blood pressure and muscle pain. Using Paxlovid at the same time as some other medicines can lead to potentially serious drug interactions«.
He ritonavirone of the two active principles of the treatment, can cause liver damageTherefore, caution should be exercised when administering Paxlovid to patients with pre-existing liver disease, liver enzyme abnormalities, or inflammation of the liver.
And the side effects appeared, leaving a bad taste in your mouth (literally) to whom they were treated.
My conclusion: Pfizer offers a pill that is only tested in not vaccinated, therefore it should not be prescribed to vaccinated; nor to people who do not have symptoms of Covid; nor to seriously ill patients who require hospitalization or who they are inthe hospital; nor to children; nor to people who take any of the drugs with which it can interact; nor to those who suffer from liver or kidneys; nor to pregnant or lactating women, etc.
Nor to those who do not have a serious risk of suffering from the disease.
Assuming that efficiency is the argument Pfizer (the data from his trials are not open to the scientific community and are still not conclusive, I insist), only one a very small number of the population would benefit her. And only if the infection is detected in the first five days.
And then there is the rebound effect because those who took the pills, when they stopped doing so, five days later After the start of treatment, the virus continued to replicate and they felt sick again.
The American President, Joe Bidenwas one of the people who suffered the rebound effect of the Paxlovid and his case led to doubts about this drug.
We are not magicians or witches, it was seen coming and now the question arises as to whether those who buy these “losing” treatments from their position in the Public healthcare they are foolish or have some kind of relationship, even a friendly one, with the manufacturers.