Corona: Effective medicines are hard to come by

Created: 01/24/2022, 14:58

By: Vincent Bussow

In Germany and the USA, corona drugs are only available with a prescription and after a positive test.

(Archive image) © Marta Fernández Jara/dpa

Corona drugs should make the virus defeatable in the long term.

In the US, however, it is difficult to get the funds.

How is the situation in Germany?

Frankfurt – In addition to vaccinations, drugs for the treatment of corona diseases* are also becoming increasingly relevant. New therapies for severe cases in particular are being investigated and approved worldwide. In the USA *, where some corona drugs are now on the market, it is proving difficult to get them, as the Politico news site reports. What is the problem? And how is the situation in Germany?

The antiviral corona drugs Molnupiravir from Merck and Paxlovid from Pfizer are available in pill form in the USA.

The former can also be prescribed in Germany since the beginning of the year, while the Pfizer tablet is to receive emergency approval in Germany in January.

Although the drugs are already approved across the Atlantic, there are several problems with their distribution.

Criticism of the distribution of corona drugs in the USA

For example, pharmacists in the USA criticize the fact that only doctors and certain healthcare workers are allowed to prescribe the Corona* tablets if the test is positive.

This reports the portal Politico.

In order to get the medication, potentially contagious patients are sent to a test station, to a doctor and then to a pharmacy.

In Germany, too, the funds against Corona are not simply distributed.

The 80,000 doses of the drug molnupiravir provided by the federal government can be prescribed by doctors if there is a positive corona test.

The prescription is transmitted directly to the pharmacy, as can be seen from information from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.

Availability of corona drugs: what is the situation in Germany and the USA?

In the United States, however, there are even more obstacles to easy access to corona drugs. State officials are complaining about the small amount of funding being made available to them, according to Politico. The White House denies this. According to experience reports, however, the distribution of antiviral corona tablets in the United States is concentrated in the metropolitan areas. In rural areas, old and poor people in particular should therefore have difficulties making the journey to the nearest suitable pharmacy.

In Germany, meanwhile, attempts are being made to increase the supply of effective therapies against severe corona diseases.

In addition to the corona drug Paxlovid from Pfizer*, the federal government also wants to make contingents of the drug Xevudy available.

The monoclonal antibody Sotrovimab it contains is also said to provide good protection against the omicron variant*.

(vbu)