Limited supply of new COVID-fighting pill in B.C. even for those most at risk

Like everything else with COVID, the use of the latest tool to fight it is being limited, first, to those most at risk.

B.C. has received 4,000 treatment courses of the new Pfizer-produced Paxlovid pill to treat COVID.

“We have developed a hub and spoke model so this medication can be made available through our infectious disease team and they are able to identify people who, for this very initial supply of medication, are most at risk,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said during a news briefing today, Feb. 1.

The critical time to start taking the pill is within five days of the onset of symptoms so qualified patients need to make sure they get tested quickly when they get sick.

Those who qualify for the pill are those who are already in higher risk groups and, therefore, qualify to get PCR tests.

“We have identified, essentially, the people who are in our critically extremely vulnerable groups one and two,” Dr. Henry said. “Those are those people who have immune compromising conditions because of medications that they’re on, because of having a transplant or undergoing certain cancer therapies. Those are the people who now will have access to this drug.”

But not all of them.

“Every medication comes with risks and benefits but this new antiviral combination has some very important – what we call contraindications – so it can’t be used in some cases,” Dr. Henry said. “It also has some very important drug-drug interactions so, unfortunately, many of the people who would potentially benefit from this medication take some of those medications that interact with it.”

So, first of all, someone needs to be sick with COVID and at risk of having to be hospitalized. They need a positive COVID test, have to be in the high risk group and be able to safely take the pill.

“We have to be mindful of kidney functions, immune system suppressants that they are on, anticoagulants, these are some of the very serious interactions,” Dr. Henry said.

READ MORE: Record high COVID hospitalizations in B.C.; not all sick with COVID

People who may be in this high risk group can go to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control website to get more information on whether they qualify and whether they might have drug interactions.

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