New York.— A panel of experts from the Food and Drug Administration, FDA for its acronym in English, supported this jueves the use of Paxlovid as a treatment for adults who suffer from Covid and who have a high risk that the disease becomes serious.
It is likely that the measure will give rise to the total approval of the drug, which has been made available through an authorization for its emergency use.
The vote for 16-1 took place after the agency released a new analysis that shows that Paxlovid reduces hospitalizations and deaths both among vaccinated people and among those who are not vaccinated.
Researchers from this agency estimated, based on the Covid indices for the month of January, that Paxlovid could “save 1,500 lives and avoid 13,000 hospitalizations each week in the United States”.
“I would say that in addition to oxygen, Paxlovid has probably been the single most important treatment in this epidemic and continues to do so”, commented Doctor Richard A. Murphy, Head of Infectious Diseases at the White River Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Vermont , explaining your vote in favor of the treatment.
Consumers have been particularly concerned about reports that people taking the drug are experiencing a “rebound” from Covid, and that the symptoms regress a few days after disappearing.
The analysis performed by the FDA found evidence of rebound among patients who received the treatment, but the information also showed that some Covid patients who did not receive Paxlovid also experienced a rebound.
The agency concluded that there is no significant difference in the rebound rates between the groups and that the rebound does not have a major impact on the risk of developing a serious illness.
At the meeting of experts this summer, Doctor Stephanie Troy, a researcher at the FDA, suggested that the rebound of Covid “could be a natural part of the clinical course of Covid-19 in a small subgroup of patients”, however there is taken Paxlovid the no.
