Medications to treat COVID do not replace the vaccine, warn UNAM experts

UNAM experts warned that drugs to treat COVID-19 infections do not replace vaccination against the virus, since they are only a tool for the patient to reduce the risk of the disease getting worse or even death .

Mexico City, November 20 (However) .- Experts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) warned that the medicines to treat the disease COVID-19 do not replace the vaccination against him coronavirus.

Carlos Arias Ortiz and Alejandro Sánchez Flores, members of the UNAM Institute of Biotechnology, explained that the drugs Molnupiravir and Paxlovid they are only a tool, used as a complement to treat COVID-19 infection, so they cannot be considered “as a cure by themselves”.

Arias Ortiz explained that these drugs are only a treatment for patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and are at risk of severe illness or death. “They are not medicines that cure, but they prevent the severity of the disease and also death,” he said, adding that the evidence indicates that taking them reduces the risk of death.

For his part, Sánchez Flores added that the drugs are one more “combat tool”, because although the vaccines that prevent serious symptoms and death, there is evidence that in some cases the disease gets out of control, since in some people biologics do not generate the expected immune response.

For this reason, “having access to medicine, especially at the onset of symptoms, gives us the option of being able to reduce the cases of serious diseases … it is a complement that should not replace vaccination,” emphasized the UNAM expert.

Through a statement, they recalled that the Molnupiravir, from the American pharmaceutical company Merck, was authorized in the United Kingdom, as well as by the EMA (European Medicines Agency) for its emergency use as a treatment against COVID-19, which is also expected by the FDA in United States.

With respect to Paxlovid, from the also American Pfizer, requested authorization from the United States regulatory body on November 9. Both drugs, the researchers indicated, are considered an additional strategy that contributes to reducing deaths in cases that require it.

However, Arias stressed that it is not recommended for all people who are infected with COVID-19, but in older patients and with comorbidities, who are at risk of suffering a severe disease or death, so it is not prescribed for young people , mainly those who do not present disorders.

Regarding the effectiveness of these drugs, Arias Ortiz explained that in the “case of Molnupiravir, 7 percent of the patients treated with the drug were hospitalized against 14 percent of the group who did not take it.”

He stated that “during the study, no people who had received the drug died, while in the group that was given a placebo there were eight deaths, so it has 100 percent protection against death and 50 percent effectiveness against severe illness ”.

“In the case of PaxlovidWhat they found was that 0.8 percent of those who were in the study had to be hospitalized, against 7 percent of the placebo group; this implies an 89 percent effectiveness against hospitalization. And against death, 100 percent effectiveness was reported, against seven deaths among those who received the placebo, ”Arias deepened.

“The medications are going to help prevent serious symptoms and death. Just as vaccines do, but so that in the end that number that falls outside the percentage of effectiveness can be treated with pills. If we think about it a little, this gives a much lower bottleneck because the production would not be so massive. That would give a cost reduction. But drugs are not a substitute, people should be clear about it. It is a complement, an extra lifeline ”, added Sánchez Flores.

However, experts pointed out that it is not possible to know exactly when they will be available in the market, which will depend on “next year’s production capacity, demand and how quickly these products can be licensed to India. ”, Although they see it difficult for them to be available in Mexico next year.

The price is another of the disadvantages to access these drugs: For example, the Molnupiravir It has an approximate cost of 700 dollars, that is, 14 thousand Mexican pesos, according to the company that produces it. While for the Paxlovid, Pfizer has not announced a price.

Although in the case of Molnupiravir there is an open patent, so it can be licensed to be produced in companies in other countries in a generic way, which could reduce its cost, and for Paxlovid, Pfizer announced that it will try to make it affordable for middle-income countries, and give licenses to other nations that manufacture it.

“There is a United Nations backing known as the Drug Patent Fund, which negotiates with companies that have the patent to license them to low-income and middle-income countries to produce them generically. This will allow, according to Merck105 nations have the opportunity to produce this medicine in their facilities, at least those who have the capacity, ”explained Arias.

“Something important is that eight companies have already been licensed in India, and surely through these companies and those who can produce it, costs will be lowered. Even so, it may take time to be available due to demand from rich countries. The drug is restricted to be given to people positive for SARS-CoV-2 who are in the first days of symptoms and who are at risk for comorbidities ”, he stressed.

Despite these advances, the researchers reiterated that sanitary measures must be maintained to combat coronavirus infections, among which are: the use of face masks, maintaining a considerable distance between people and that people are vaccinated.

“The problem is that it will take many years, at least two, for us to have a homogeneous vaccination, more due to the appearance of the Delta variant that is postulated to be the predominant one in the world. Possibly it will become endemic and this means that we are going to see it circulating, but the variations that it is suffering are sub-lineages of the Delta, they have characteristics of greater transmission but there could be an attenuation, either because the percentage of vaccination will be very high or because finally Let’s find a balance between the virus and ourselves, in which the virus is transmitted but does not cause such serious symptoms, ”concluded Sánchez Flores.