Oct. 30, 2023 – Two medicines that help prevent severe COVID-19 will no longer be distributed by the federal government starting Wednesday.
The shift to commercial distribution of the drugs Paxlovid and Lagevrio is yet another step of privatizing pandemic measures previously run by the government as part of the federal health emergency, which ended in May.
The transition will be closely watched after the September release of the seasonal COVID vaccine was impacted by distribution delays and insurance processing errors. Those problems were blamed on it being the first time the shots were distributed without involvement from the federal government.
People with certain risk factors, such as other medical conditions or being older, who take the antivirals shortly after COVID symptoms arise have a reduced chance of having severe COVID or of dying from the disease.
The maker of Paxlovid is set to increase the price of the drug from $530 to $1,390, Reuters reported. But most people will still be able to get the medicine for free through the end of 2024, and at no or low cost through 2028, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced this month.
The weekly number of deaths linked to COVID has risen steadily since reaching an all-time low of 484 the first week of July. The most recent weekly COVID death count was 1,339 people for the week ending Sept. 30. (Death data reported by the CDC lags a few weeks behind testing and hospitalization data.) All other COVID metrics are trending downward, with nearly 9% of tests showing positive cases for the week ending Oct. 21, and hospitalizations down a fraction of a percentage point, totaling 16,186 during the week ending Oct. 21.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said problems with distribution of COVID-19 drugs was due to it being the first time they were distributed by the federal government. In fact, this is the first time those drugs are being distributed without the government's assistance.