After his infection in August, the Greek-born started antiviral treatment Paxlovid, developed by his company and German cooperation partner Biontech. Paxlovid is a two-ingredient combination pill that is used to treat high-risk patients such as B. is used for elderly patients.
At the time, Bourla had been vaccinated four times with Pfizer / Biontech. As the CEO has now announced, the fourth point was still the conventional vaccine, not yet one of the new bivalent booster vaccinations.
Relapse after Covid-19
So far, Pfizer hasn’t announced any further information on the company’s boss coronavirus positive test: whether it’s actually a renewed infection – little is known about reinfections with BA.5 – or the so-called rebound effect after taking Paxlovid then widely discussed in social media.
This phenomenon is not reinfection but a relapse of symptoms after discontinuation of therapy. The preparation consists of the active ingredients nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, which are taken in the form of tablets in the morning and in the evening for a period of five days. The active substance nirmatrelvir inhibits the replication of the virus, while ritonavir slows the breakdown of the drug.
However, the so-called relapse effect was only known in connection with significantly shorter intervals between pill therapy. A well-known example was US President Joe Biden in the summer, who was treated with the drug and then tested positive again. Experts currently assume that this effect can affect about five percent of all patients taking Paxlovid.
Austrian infectious disease specialist Herwig Kollaritsch explained in an interview with KURIER at the time: “The rebound effect is a temporary recurrence of very mild symptoms. This also occurs with other drugs and does not diminish the importance of Paxlovid in the treatment of Covid “.
A possible solution for cases like US President Biden could be to take the pills longer. In any case, the US pharmaceutical agency FDA took these cases as an opportunity to ask manufacturer Pfizer to test the effects of a second treatment for patients after a relapse.
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