Covid Pills Won’t Help End the Pandemic If People Can’t Get Them
Distribution of Pfizer’s Paxlovid has to expand quickly—or else the world risks repeating many of the same mistakes from the global rollout of vaccines.
When Pfizer Inc. revealed the efficacy of its Covid pill last November, the excitement was palpable. Scientists hailed Paxlovid as a breakthrough. World leaders raced to lock up supplies. But just three months into the rollout, optimism about the drug’s ability to help bring a swift end to the pandemic is waning, as fears mount that unequal distribution will exacerbate the challenge of getting the virus under control.
It’s too soon to say whether this will end up being as inequitable as the botched vaccine deployment. Mass quantities of the therapy may take more than a year to become available because of production and regulatory hurdles, according to drug experts. After wealthy nations snapped up a large share of initial supplies of Paxlovid, which slashed the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19 by 89% in clinical trials, many low- and middle-income countries are facing a potentially long wait for generic versions.