Paxlovid: virologist explains the new corona hope - theoretically "only ten percent in intensive care unit"

Created: 12/30/2021, 6:06 PM

By: Patrick Mayer

In focus: Paxlovid, an anti-Covid drug from Pfizer.

© IMAGO / Sven Simon

Paxlovid is considered to be the new hope in the fight against Corona.

A well-known virologist describes how the new drug works against the virus.

Munich / Halle (Saale) - Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was recently very enthusiastic about the anti-corona drug Paxlovid.

The Federal Government has already ordered a million packs of it, the Minister of Health reported.

Paxlovid: Karl Lauterbach relies on a new drug against corona

“The drug is extremely promising because it can significantly weaken the severe course of Covid when given early. I expect that we will be able to prevent numerous severe courses in the intensive care units, "said the Rhinelander in a statement:" Thanks to a combination of increasingly effective vaccines and treatment options, Covid is slowly becoming a disease that will lose its horror. "

The numbers behind it: It is known from previous studies that Paxlovid is said to reduce severe courses in high-risk patients by almost 90 percent.

But how does the new drug from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer work, which appears to be a real bearer of hope in the coronavirus pandemic?

The well-known virologist Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, who is among other things a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, has now provided an explanation.

Paxlovid: drug works differently against corona than vaccines

“The vaccines work against the virus's outer coat protein, the so-called spike protein.

Paxlovid, on the other hand, attacks an enzyme in the virus ", the scientist explained in an interview with RTL:" That means, even if the vaccines are no longer as effective because the virus changes, this enzyme has not changed at the moment and we can use it assume a very high effectiveness. "

It's a huge success.

Virologist Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff on Paxlovid

Clinical studies have shown, said Fränkin, “that if patients who are at risk of developing more severe Covid are treated with Paxlovid for five days, the risk of having to go to hospital or even dying is 89 percent sinks".

That means, “There would then be just under ten percent of the patients in the hospitals in the intensive care unit.

That is an enormous success ”.

Paxlovid: Virologist - Severe corona courses can be significantly reduced

But that's not all: Rübsamen-Schaeff also expects that patients treated with Paxlovid will be less infectious.

“That means that they also pass on less virus to their surroundings.

And that would also have an effect on the spread of the virus, "she explained in an interview with RTL.

She had urgent advice: “It is important to know that you have to take it very early,” said the virologist: “That means that if I know that I am infected and before severe symptoms occur, I have to be treated.

For about five days so that the virus does not spread in the body. "

In the video: Paxlovid - government buys one million packs of the anti-Covid drug

And side effects?

Rübsamen-Schaeff said that Paxlovid had been tested in a clinical study on several thousand people.

Occasionally there were taste disorders, diarrhea or increased blood pressure.

Nevertheless, Rübsamen-Schaeff was very confident about the hoped-for progress in the fight against the virus: “I am very, very happy that we have it.

But I would like to say right away that we urgently need further drugs against the virus so that we can increase our arsenal to fight Corona. "