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Nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir in COVID-19: a profile of its use

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posted on 2022-11-17, 23:50 authored by Hannah A. Blair

Declarations

Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.

Authorship and conflict of interest H. A. Blair is a salaried employee of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature and declares no relevant conflicts of interest. All authors contributed to the review and are responsible for the article content.

Ethics approval, Consent to participate, Consent for publication, Availability of data and material, Code availability Not applicable.

Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here.

Abstract

Oral nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid™) is an effective treatment option for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Nirmatrelvir inhibits the main protease of SARS-CoV-2, with ritonavir acting as a pharmacokinetic booster. In the phase II/III EPIC-HR trial, nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir reduced the risk of progression to severe COVID-19 in symptomatic, unvaccinated, non-hospitalized adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 at high risk for progression to severe disease. The incidence of COVID-19-related hospitalization or death through day 28 was significantly lower with nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir than with placebo. The efficacy of nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir has also been demonstrated in the real-world setting. Nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir is generally well tolerated, with most adverse events being of mild or moderate severity.