(ANSA) - ROME, APRIL 14 - For patients with Covid who have a higher risk of incurring severe forms of the disease, the use of the antiviral nirmatrelvir (Pfizer molecule known by the trade name of Paxlovid) together with a commonly used drug against HIV (ritonavir) reduces the risk of hospitalization by almost 90% and almost eliminates that of death.
This is what emerges from an international clinical trial whose results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The trial, which took place between July and December 2021, involved 2,246 people with symptomatic non-vaccinated Covid and who had at least one risk condition, for example more than 60 years, pathologies that involve an inefficient immune response, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, pulmonary, cardiovascular orenal diseases.
Half of them received a placebo in the 5 days after the onset of symptoms, the other half the two antivirals: it was in fact observed that the addition of low doses of ritonavir is able to enhance the efficacy of the anti-SarsCoV2 molecule.
Among the patients treated with the two antivirals, 8 out of 1,039 (0.77%) needed hospitalization and none died.
In the control group, 66 hospitalizations of 1,046 participants (6.31%) and 12 deaths were recorded.
The reduction in hospitalization risk was 87.8%.
"Our data show that treatment with nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir early in the disease can prevent progression to severe disease and rapidly reduce the viral load of SarsCoV2," the researchers conclude.
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