Supply shortage of new antiviral drug threatens fight against omicron
By Peter Sullivan - 12/17/21 05:15 PM EST
A new pill from Pfizer to treat COVID-19 has been hailed as a game-changer that can drastically cut down the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease.
But demand for the treatment, known as Paxlovid, is expected to far outrun supply, blunting its ability to help fight what medical professionals say is an oncoming wave of infections from the omicron variant.
Experts are calling on the Biden administration to take action to help increase manufacturing capacity by enlisting additional companies to help Pfizer make the doses.
“I think we should be doing everything we can,” said Krishna Udayakumar, director of the Duke Global Health Innovation Center. “This requires a full court press.”
He noted that Merck is helping make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a model that could be applied to therapeutics like the Pfizer pill as well.
But so far, he said. “I have not seen any aggressive push or attempt to access existing manufacturing capacity in the U.S. or globally to date around therapeutics.”
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https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/586368-supply-shortage-of-new-antiviral-drug-threatens-fight-against-omicron
