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The U.S. government has chosen to test Pfizer’s new antiviral as a possible treatment for Long COVID. Here’s what you need to know.
Amid increased calls for testing, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will study Pfizer’s new antiviral drug Paxlovid as part of its $1 billion Long COVID RECOVER initiative. The drug has been shown to provide relief from Long COVID symptoms in a few case studies and is already approved for emergency use to combat acute COVID-19 infection in high-risk populations.*
According to different estimates, approximately 30 to 50% of people infected with COVID-19 go on to develop Long COVID. Long COVID is a complex condition that can present as any, or a combination, of more than 200 different symptoms beyond the COVID-19 infection, including:
Long COVID can affect people of all ages, no matter how serious their initial COVID-19 infection is. The condition affects everyone differently, but for some people, the long-term symptoms are severe enough to impact their ability to work and limit even mundane daily activities like getting dressed or walking from room to room.
Paxlovid is a combination antiviral drug, consisting of a new Pfizer compound and an existing antiviral medication called ritonavir. Paxlovid is currently used in the early days of COVID-19 infection to help prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death in high-risk patients.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the antiviral could also help provide symptom relief for people struggling with Long COVID, but larger, more controlled studies are needed to fully understand this relationship.
As part of its $1 billion RECOVER initiative, the NIH has chosen Paxlovid as its first treatment to study in Long COVID patients. The randomized, controlled study will include 1,700 adult volunteers and is scheduled to begin on January 1, 2023. It will be supervised by the Duke Clinical Research Institute.
*Steenhuysen, J. (2022, October 27). U.S. government to test Pfizer’s Paxlovid for long COVID. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-government-test-pfizers-paxlovid-long-covid-2022-10-27/
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