International
Although prescriptions of the antiviral COVID-19 drug Paxlovid doubled in 2022 in Canada, there was no matching drop in hospitalisations or death rates among highly vaccinated older adults, according to a new study. Paxlovid, or nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, was previously shown in trials to reduce COVID–19–related hospitalisations among younger unvaccinated patients, but the authors say it was not known if this would also be the case for older and highly vaccinated populations. They found no significant drop in hospitalisations even though the rate of prescriptions of Paxlovid more than doubled. They say at best, the drug may reduce COVID-19–related hospitalisations by 1.3 percentage points, which is four times smaller than the benefit reported in the original trial.
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