Posted on 04/19/2022 6:04:05 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
(Reuters) - Worldwide demand for Pfizer Inc's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid has been unexpectedly light due to complicated eligibility requirements, reduced testing, and potential for drug interactions, a Reuters review of data and interviews with experts has found.
Demand also has been hampered by the perception that Omicron infections are not that severe.
Paxlovid was expected to be a major tool in the fight against COVID after it reduced hospitalizations or deaths in high-risk patients by around 90% in a clinical trial.
But even amid a recent rise in infections, Paxlovid supply far outstripped demand in the United States, UK, Japan, and South Korea, data from health ministries and Reuters interviews with doctors and pharmacists found.
"We're just not seeing as many people coming in for testing," said Dr. Timothy Hendrix, senior medical director of AdventHealth Centra Care in Florida, which has more than 40 urgent care locations. Hendrix said he had not prescribed Paxlovid in a few weeks. Eligible patients have turned down prescription, because they believe the Omicron variant causes mild illness.
"Most of our patients (say) ... 'I'm just going to go home and tough this out,'" Hendrix said.
Pfizer plans to produce up to 120 million courses of Paxlovid this year and expects at least $22 billion in sales from contracts signed through early February. The United States, which agreed to buy up to 20 million pills this year, making it the largest publicly known buyer, is paying around $530 a course, but prices vary by country.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I spoke with an RN who told me one of the first the warnings she gives out with Paxlovid is that a possible side effect is hepatitis. Jeez….
Pfizer appears to be trying hard to be the Yugo of the pharma world.
In any case, I’ve had COVID, and will NEVER get another one of those “science project” injections. I’m one of the older farts, but sorry, I have a hell of a lot more ability to analyze than our sorry assed journalists and politicians.
Don’t be sorry about your ability to analyze. Critical Thinking is a lost art especially to those under 40. If it’s not on their “smart phone” then they don’t believe it.
As for politicians ability to analyze, they use rigged and biased polls as their “critical analysis” technique. Same polls that are run on “smart phones”. Forest Gump was right - “Stupid is as Stupid does”
Take the Pfizer horse pill, it’s $20 better than the evil fake news useful human deworming horse pill used throughout the 3rd world. Why it’s the veggie burger of burgers. American advertising at its best evil.
closest thing to the normal FDA prescribing information NORMALLY required and published as part of NORMAL FDA drug approval; apparently that doesn’t actually happen with EUA “approval”, and this is the best that can be had:
https://labeling.pfizer.com/ShowLabeling.aspx?id=16474
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