The White House is making efforts to expand access to life-saving COVID drug Paxlovid, manufactured by Pfizer, which previously suffered from shortages yet which now is widely available in most parts of the country.
A combination of two different anti-viral drugs, Paxlovid has been shown to reduce risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 by around 88 percent compared to a placebo in a double-blind trial. Following FDA emergency use authorization, Paxlovid became available for emergency use, Dec. 22, 2021. At the time, the omicron variant was dominant in the United States. As fear of another deadly wave mounted, shortages prevented the wide distribution of the highly effective antiretroviral therapeutic drug — though fortunately, that is no longer the case.
