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Millions of Doses of Pfizer’s Paxlovid Will Go to Waste in U.K., EU as COVID Demand Plummets
On the heels of a major Paxlovid inventory write-off in the United States, many more doses of Pfizer’s COVID-fighting antiviral are going to waste overseas. By the end of February, the value of leftover courses headed for the bin will reach $2.2 billion in Europe, according to London-based life sciences analytics firm Airfinity.
At the end of November, more than 1.5 million courses of Pfizer’s Paxlovid had expired unused in various European countries, Airfinity said in a new report. The total tally of expired courses in Europe is expected to hit 3.1 million by the end of next month, representing a value of $2.2 billion, the analysts wrote.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, an estimated 1 million courses have expired so far at a cost of $700 million, according to Airfinity. Another 550,000 are due to expire by the end of February, followed by 650,000 more expired Paxlovid courses at the end of June in the U.K.
In all, the firm expects about $1.5 billion worth of Paxlovid courses will expire in the U.K. by midyear.
Paxlovid first came to market at the beginning of 2022. For that entire year, the drug brought home sales of $19 billion. But the antiviral’s fortunes experienced a dramatic downturn in 2023, with Pfizer previously projecting a 95% sales drop for the product last year.
Florida Surgeon General Ladapo Contradicts Feds, Recommends Against mRNA COVID Shots
Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported:
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo took the extraordinary step Wednesday of “calling for a halt to the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” a move that contradicts federal health authorities and again makes Florida an outlier.
Ladapo said in a statement released by the Florida Department of Health that he raised questions about the safety of the vaccines with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and they did not provide an adequate response. As a result, he said, he is now recommending against their use.
In 2022, Ladapo made Florida the first state in the nation to recommend against healthy children receiving the COVID-19 vaccines. Then last year he recommended against anyone under the age of 65 getting new COVID vaccine boosters.
Ladapo’s latest recommendation is his most drastic yet, targeting some of the most popular vaccines such as those made by Pfizer and Moderna. Ladapo’s letter to the FDA raises concerns about “the risks of contaminant DNA integration into human DNA” through the messenger RNA vaccine and “the integrity of the human genome.”
Four Years on, Long COVID Still Confounds Us. Here’s What We Now Know.
Many people now view COVID-19 as an almost routine inconvenience, much like flu, RSV and other seasonal infections. But four years after reports surfaced of a new respiratory illness, prompting a massive response among researchers, the disease’s aftereffects — commonly called long COVID — continue to confound doctors and patients alike.
“We know a lot about this particular coronavirus,” said Francesca Beaudoin, chair of the department of epidemiology at Brown University. “That does not translate into an understanding of the long-term consequences of infection.”
As many as 7 percent of Americans report having suffered from a slew of lingering symptoms after enduring COVID-19, including fatigue, difficulty breathing, brain fog, joint pain and ongoing loss of taste and smell, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there is still no clearly defined cause of, or cure for the syndrome.
The costs of our lack of understanding are vast, Beaudoin and others say, creating a huge new burden on the healthcare system, as people report limitations in their daily activities including being able to work.
Hospital Costs Soared for COVID Patients During Pandemic
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The average cost of hospital care for COVID-19 patients skyrocketed during the pandemic, outstripping what might be expected under inflation, a new study shows.
Average hospital costs for COVID patients increased five times faster than the rate of medical inflation through the first two years of the pandemic, researchers have found.
This is at least partly due to the pricey medical technologies that had to be employed to fight the dangerous new infection, the researchers said.
The average cost of COVID hospitalization increased from about $10,000 during the first weeks of the pandemic to more than $13,000 by March 2022, researchers reported Jan. 3 in the journal JAMA Network Open.
New COVID Variant JN.1 Now Comprises up to 30% of U.S. Cases: CDC
The latest variant of the COVID-19 virus, JN.1, is now responsible for an estimated 15% to 29% of cases in the U.S. as of Dec. 8, according to a posted update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
JN.1, which is currently the country’s fastest-growing variant, is expected to continue to increase in prevalence among COVID cases, the CDC stated.
It is very similar to the BA.2.86 variant, which is an Omicron subvariant that emerged in August.
Despite its quick growth, the agency said “there is no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variants,” as it does not appear to cause increased severity of illness.
Study Shows COVID Leaves Brain Injury Markers in Blood
A study published in Nature Communications last week describes how markers of brain injury are present in the blood months after COVID-19 infection, despite normal inflammation blood tests.
The findings, which come from research teams at the University of Liverpool and King’s College London, add to the complicated picture of how COVID-19 can cause a range of neurologic symptoms.
The authors found that in the early convalescent phase (less than 6 weeks post-infection), markers were elevated in participants recovering from COVID-19, with no differences between those who had or had not experienced a neurologic complication. After 6 weeks, elevated markers were seen only in participants who suffered neurologic symptoms in the acute phase of illness.
“These brain injury markers are associated with dysregulated systemic innate and adaptive immune responses in the acute phase of the disease, and suggest that these may represent targets for therapy,” the authors said.
