US authorizes first anticovid pill as cases skyrocket
The United States has authorized the first pill against covid-19, manufactured by Pfizer and that it seeks to reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths at a time when the omicron variant It has produced an exponential increase in infections. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US regulatory body, announced on Wednesday the emergency authorization of Pfizer’s pill, which was also endorsed this month by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) although not yet has officially authorized it.
In a statement, the FDA specified that the pill can be used to treat moderate cases of coronavirus in adults and children under 12 years of age with at least 40 kilograms of weight and who have previous conditions, such as obesity or heart problems, with a risk of being hospitalized.
The Pfizer pill is the first oral anticovid treatment Americans will be able to take at home and is expected to become a crucial tool against the pandemic at a time when cases have skyrocketed from the omicron variant. Until now, all treatments in the US for the disease were administered through an injection or intravenously.
The pill, which will be sold under the name Paxlovid, It can only be bought with a prescription and patients should take it as soon as they know they have the disease, at most within the first five days in which they have presented symptoms, the FDA detailed in its statement.
The authorization comes at a time when they are registering infection records in some parts of the United States, where the total number of cases has grown by almost 30% in the last two weeks. Infections have skyrocketed especially in the northeast of the country. For example, in the last week, cases have grown 92% in New York and 369% in the District of Columbia, where the capital is located.
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