Study finds Pfizer’s antiviral has little or even zero benefit for younger adults, and WHO says BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for 74% of cases in latest week
Last Updated: Aug. 25, 2022 at 2:45 p.m. ET
First Published: Aug. 25, 2022 at 10:33 a.m. ET
By Ciara Linnane
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Omicron now accounts for 99% of cases sequenced worldwide, says WHO
A study conducted by Israeli researchers found that Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid may have no benefit for younger adults.
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGE
Pfizer’s COVID antiviral Paxlovid appears to have little or no benefit for younger adults, although it still reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in seniors, according to a new Israeli study.
Data from the 109,000-patient study may renew questions about the U.S. government’s use of Paxlovid, which has become the go-to treatment for COVID-19 due to its at-home convenience, as the Associated Press reported.
The Biden administration has spent more than $10 billion purchasing the drug and making it available at thousands of pharmacies through its test-and-treat initiative. Biden himself took Paxlovid during his recent bout with COVID.
The researchers found that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations among people 65 and older by roughly 75% when given shortly after infection. That’s consistent with earlier results used to weigh authorization of the drug in the U.S. and elsewhere.
But people between the ages of 40 and 65 saw no measurable benefit, according to the analysis of medical records.
The study has limitations due to its design, which compiled data from a large Israeli health system rather than enrolling patients in a randomized study with a control group — the gold standard for medical research.
“Paxlovid will remain important for people at the highest risk of severe COVID-19, such as seniors and those with compromised immune systems,” Dr. David Boulware, a University of Minnesota researcher and physician, who was not involved in the study, told the AP. “But for the vast majority of Americans who are now eligible, this really doesn’t have a lot of benefit.”
A spokesman for Pfizer PFE, +0.99% declined to comment on the results, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease, although the true tally is likely higher than reported given how many people are testing at home, and the data are not being collected.
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The daily average for new cases stood at 91,383 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 16% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 8% at 39,443, while the daily average for deaths is down 4% to 458.
The World Health Organization said globally cases fell 9% in the week through Aug. 21 versus the week earlier, while the number of deaths fell by 15%.
The agency’s weekly epidemiological update found that the BA.5 omicron variant has become dominant globally, accounting for 74% of cases sequenced to a global database, up from 71% a week ago.
Overall, omicron variants accounted for 99% of sequences reported worldwide in the last 30 days.
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