Croatia ordered 10,000 doses of remdesivir after several weeks of shortage of anti-coronavirus drugs, but the question arises why not Paxlovid, a drug highly effective in preventing the development of covid-19, which was recommended by the relevant Ministry for use half a year ago, writes Večernji list on Saturday.
Currently, there is a correspondence between the members of the Government Scientific Council on epidemiological measures, the vaccine against covid-19 and new strains. However, several scientists and Council members contacted by Večernji list called for an agreement to refrain from public controversy before the final decision.
Clinicians explain that both drugs are most effective in the early stages of the disease, when the patient has not yet developed a severe clinical picture. By the way, the characteristic of all antiviral drugs is that they work better if they are used in the early stages of the disease, notes infectious disease expert Prof. Bruno Baršić. The difference in the effects of each of the two mentioned drugs is best seen in more severely ill patients, where the “old” remdesivir is slightly better for patients on oxygen.
“Both remdesivir and Paxlovid prevent the development of a severe clinical picture and, consequently, mortality. The difference is in the way the drug is administered, remdesivir is administered exclusively by injection, while Paxlovid is intended for oral use, i.e. in tablets. What has been proven is that remdesivir, even in severe forms of coronavirus infection, can reduce mortality to some extent, but with rather modest results, really not in a very large number of cases. The fact is that in the majority of cases, patients reach the hospital around the seventh day after infection, and the maximum effectiveness of the medicine is up to the fourth day – explains the professor emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb. Bruno Baršićconsultant infectious disease specialist who heads the Crisis Staff of the Dubrava Clinical Hospital.
Data obtained from clinical trials show that Paxlovid reduces the risk of disease progression by as much as 89 percent, according to prof. Baršić, but mostly it refers to younger patients, around 40-49 years old.
And the head of Split infectious disease dr. Ivo Ivic says that for conditioned patients there is no 100% efficiency with any of these drugs.
“We would like to have a 100% effective drug that is easy to use and can be given to every patient, but there is none. Remdesivir, if it is available, is not useless, it is of some use for conditioned patients, those older than 65, heart, lung, immunological, and in the first days of the disease, it is given in the hope that it will stop the emergence of the virus and the development of a more serious disease,” says an infectious disease expert from Split.
The prices, by the way, are not low for either of these two drugs, they are measured in thousands of euros per treatment. Pfizer’s new drug, Paxlovid, is also procured at the level of the European Union, but there is no unequivocal answer as to why Croatia is one of the few that has not yet received it, writes a Večernji list journalist. Romana Kovačević Barišić.
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