Coronavirus Drugs to Reach Czech Pharmacies in January

The Czech Republic has taken delivery of coronavirus drugs Paxlovid and Lagevrio, with the Health Minister working on making sure the drug reaches pharmacies as quickly as possible.

Patients with national health insurance will not have to pay for them.

At the moment, both drugs can be bought only in some hospital pharmacies and only with a paper prescription.

Paxlovid is an oral antiviral pill that can be taken at home to help keep high-risk patients from getting so sick that they need to be hospitalized. So, if you test positive for the coronavirus and you are eligible to take the pills, you can take them at home and lower your risk of going to the hospital.

The drug, developed by Pfizer, has a lot of positives: It had an 89% reduction in the risk of hospitalization and death in unvaccinated people in the clinical trial that supported the EUA.

Studies outside of the laboratory have since confirmed Paxlovid’s effectiveness among people who have been vaccinated. It’s cheaper than many other COVID-19 drugs.

Lagevrio, from the US company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, is less effective, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death by 48%.

Lagevrio is authorized for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults age 18 years and older, who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and for whom alternative COVID-19 treatment options are not accessible or clinically appropriate.