The Meals and Drug Administration added pharmacists on Wednesday to the checklist of well being care professionals who’re allowed to prescribe Pfizer’s tablets for treating Covid-19. The transfer, aimed toward making it simpler for sufferers to get the drug, will considerably enhance the variety of prescribers who can order the remedy, often called Paxlovid.
There are greater than 300,000 licensed pharmacists throughout america, in keeping with the American Pharmacists Affiliation, an expert group that has been lobbying for the change.
Beforehand, solely medical doctors, nurses and doctor assistants were allowed to prescribe the remedy. That restriction typically pressured sufferers to scramble to discover a prescriber after which a location that will dispense the tablets, which should be taken inside 5 days of the beginning of signs.
The Biden administration moved earlier this yr to broaden entry to the remedies by launching a “test to treat” program that was meant to permit sufferers to get a prescription for the tablets instantly after testing optimistic for the virus, and on the similar location, typically a CVS MinuteClinic. However these clinics required an in-house nurse practitioner or doctor assistant to be current to prescribe the drug, and people professionals should not out there at many pharmacies.
Whereas pharmacists typically do not need the identical prescribing authority as medical doctors and nurses, they’ve been gaining extra authority in some states to prescribe generally used medicine for circumstances which might be simple to handle. Pharmacists’ teams champion these strikes as patient-friendly, particularly in rural and poorer areas which might be underserved by conventional well being care suppliers. Medical doctors’ teams have typically opposed increasing pharmacists’ prescribing authority, elevating issues about security dangers created by pharmacists’ restricted details about a affected person’s well being historical past.
On Wednesday, the F.D.A. mentioned that Covid sufferers in search of a prescription for the tablets from a pharmacist ought to carry data of their current blood assessments and an inventory of the opposite medicines they take. The pharmacist ought to then evaluate the data for potential kidney or liver issues or problematic interactions between Paxlovid and the affected person’s different medicine, the company mentioned. A part of Pfizer’s remedy can interfere with sure medicines, together with widespread ones for ldl cholesterol and cardiovascular points, doubtlessly inflicting severe uncomfortable side effects.
The company mentioned that pharmacists ought to refer sufferers to different prescribers if the data and details about different medicines was not out there.
Paxlovid has been out there underneath emergency authorization for high-risk Covid sufferers ages 12 or older because the finish of final yr. Greater than 800,000 prescriptions had been allotted in america in its first 5 months of availability, despite the fact that preliminary provides had been restricted. Pfizer filed an utility final week in search of full approval of Paxlovid.
