FDA allows for pharmacists to prescribe Paxlovid to treat COVID-19

Editor's Note

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 6 that it would alter its emergency use authorization for the Paxlovid pill—Pfizer’s oral antiviral pill used by some to treat COVID-19—to allow pharmacists to prescribe the treatment to recently affected individuals directly.

According to Fierce Pharma July 7, this adjustment “should ease access to the COVID-19 treatment,” which entails a 30-pill regimen taken over a 5-day span that can only be prescribed within a 5-day window after those infected develop symptoms.

“The FDA’s decision comes 6 weeks after the White House pushed for greater access to the drug…[and] as COVID infections are starting to rise in the US” again, the article noted. The FDA authorized use of Paxlovid in December 2021 after the drug showed 89% effectiveness in reducing the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 infection.

However, the American Medical association spoke out against the FDA’s decision, saying that Paxlovid “should only be prescribed by physicians with knowledge of a patient’s medical history,” noted the article.