For malaria you can take one pill a week or one daily, depending on the region of the world you are going to visit and the risks you may run. For the coronavirus there is also oral medication, which does not replace the vaccine, and protects high-risk patients.
Pfizer’s oral antiviral (Paxlovid) can be given to children over 12 years of age; the pills Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) (Molnupiravir) They are not recommended for patients under 18 years of age because they can affect bone and cartilage growth.
So are the pills against COVID
They are taken days after the first symptoms. The best time to ingest them is just when the virus is replicating quickly and the immune system has not yet prepared a defense. There are researchers, however, who believe that this oral protection should be taken before symptoms occur.
Both laboratories have devised a prescription of five days of treatment. The two active ingredients in Pfizer’s antiviral (PF-07321332 and ritonavir) are available as separate tablets to be taken together twice a day for five days.
The most common side effects reported during treatment and approximately one month after the last dose were taste disturbance, diarrhea and vomiting. Pfizer’s pill blocks the activity of a specific enzyme that the coronavirus needs to replicate in the infected bodyin a mechanism very similar to that of other pharmaceutical companies that are already being administered in some countries, such as the United States or Canada.
In previous studies from both laboratories (which have not been published or peer-reviewed), none of those who took the treatment died. In the Pfizer study, most of the patients in the study were infected with the Delta variant. Based on laboratory studies, Paxlovid is also expected to be active against Omicron and other variants.
The documentation on the new Pfizer medication should be available on the website EMA in the coming days. In the meantime, you can consult the 45 pages of documentation provided by the company at this link.
The tratment of Merck Sharp & Dohme, Molnupiravir, is the chemical name of a medicine developed to treat the flu that is given orally in a capsule.
In this case, it inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 through a mechanism known as ‘lethal mutagenesis’, making the reproduction of the virus defective. Merck claims to have signed advance purchase and supply agreements for molnupiravir with the governments of Thailand, Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Since December, when they made the anti-covid pill official, Shares of the company have risen $10 to $80.90 at the close of trading yesterday.
The cost of both treatments is more than 620 euros.