Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults.
Doses of the anti-viral drug Paxlovid are displayed in New York, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. Pfizer's COVID-19 pill may provide little benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for higher-risk seniors, according to an Israeli study published Wednesday, Aug 24, 2022.
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. At the time of the FDA decision there were no options for treating COVID-19 at home, and Paxlovid was considered critical to curbing hospitalizations and deaths during the pandemic's second winter surge. The drug's results were also far stronger than a competing pill from Merck.