The Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) chose to endorse the use of the drug after analyzing “all the available scientific evidence and after carefully weighing the risks against the related benefits.”
The entity stressed that the authorization is “temporary” and only for “emergency use, on an experimental basis,” as indicated in a note.
Before Brazil, Paxlovid, an orally administered antiviral that combines nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, had already been approved in the United States, the European Union, Canada, China, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and Mexico.
Its use is recommended for the treatment of covid-19 in adults who do not require supplemental oxygen, but are at high risk of progressing to severe forms of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.
“The world is waiting with hope and urgency for effective therapies that are easily accessible and that allow the broad treatment of covid-19,” said Meiruze Freitas, a member of Anvisa’s Board of Directors, defending the approval of Paxlovid.
He also stressed that its use allows adding “a new treatment strategy” to “reduce the damage of the pandemic”, although he insisted that “vaccination continues to be the best strategy to avoid hospitalizations and deaths.”
Brazil is, along with the United States and India, one of the countries most affected in the world by the coronavirus pandemic, with 659,504 deaths and 29.9 million infected since the outbreak of the virus, two years and a month ago.
According to official data, in the last day there were 263 new deaths and almost 34,000 positives in the country, which since mid-February has experienced a sustained decline in covid statistics, once the peak caused by the omicron variant has been overcome.
As for vaccination, almost 75% of the 213 million Brazilians are on the complete schedule and around 40% already have the first additional dose in their arms.
The entrance Brazil approves the emergency use of the drug against covid was first published in diary TODAY.
