Madrid
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In the fight against the coronavirus, antivirals and drugs to treat it promised to be hope, almost at the same level as what the arrival of the first vaccines meant then. However, the congestion at the time of dispensing the medicines is causing that at a time when the elderly suffer the highest incidence of the coronavirus, their medicine does not reach them.
Despite the fact that in other countries such as the United States, Pfizer’s antiviral, Paxlovid, can be easily purchased at the pharmacy and without a prescription for all those who notice the symptoms of the coronavirus in its first days, in Spain the protocol is very different.
The Spanish Medicines Agency (Aemps) establishes that this will be aimed at immunocompromised people, unvaccinated people over 80 years of age or 65 to whom Covid-19 may lead to serious illness.
Spain has bought 344,000 medicines for 280 million euros. At the moment, only five autonomous communities dispense the antiviral in pharmacies, always prescribed in Primary Care. Yesterday, Cantabria joined the dispensation, but Andalusia, Catalonia, Aragon and Navarra already did so before. There the experience confirms the funnel.
In Andalusia, where Paxlovid has been distributed in pharmacies since April 4, with data as of yesterday, 498 treatments have been dispensed in three months for a population of 80 million inhabitants. “The problem is that it is dispensed under very specific conditions, for those over 80 years of age without vaccination. In my pharmacy I have not yet dispensed any treatment, “he explains. Ernesto Cervilla, vice president of the Andalusian Council of Pharmacists. “Hopefully it doesn’t happen like with Tamiflu (against influenza A), which all expired in pharmacies,” he says ironically.
«Given the peculiarities of the effective use of this medicine -importance of the immediate start of treatment, ease of administration of the drug and prescription also from Primary Care- the greatest possible accessibility should be established through proximity dispensing, taking advantage of the network of 22,137 pharmacies and the 55,000 community pharmacists”, explains Anthony Blanesdirector of the Pharmaceutical Services of the General Council of Pharmaceutical Associations.
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