£550 Million of Covid Drugs Go to Waste in U.K.

More than £550 million of Covid drugs have been wasted in the U.K., according to analysis of health data by health analytics firm Airfinty. The Telegraph has the story – though be warned, it’s from Sarah Newey of the pro-pharma, Gates-funded Global Health Security team, so comes with that slant.

Paxlovid – an antiviral developed by Pfizer and designed to be used shortly after people test positive for COVID-19 – was approved across Britain in 2021 after trial results found it reduced the risk of severe illness by almost 90%. 

Yet more than one million courses of the antiviral have now expired in the U.K., according to a report from the health analytics firm Airfinty. That figure could surge to 2.2 million by the end of June – equivalent to £1.1 billion worth of wasted drugs. 

Britain’s unused stock is higher than anywhere else in Europe. About 200,000 doses expired before they were prescribed in Spain, and 100,000 in France and Italy, respectively. …

Prof Paul Hunter, a professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “My personal view is that we probably were over narrow. 

“Age itself was not an indicator for its use in the U.K., but I would have included older age groups in the target group even in the absence of one of the indicator diseases.”

Yet he added that there are legitimate reasons for a cautious rollout of Paxlovid, and said a positive Covid test should be a prerequisite. In the U.S., this requirement was dropped in 2023.

“Antiviral drug resistance is a real problem and although so far, not a big problem for Paxlovid and Covid, it is only a matter of time – studies have shown evolution of resistance is possible,” he said. 

“So if very many people were taking Paxlovid … it is likely that resistance to the drug would develop more rapidly, and then it would no longer be of such value.” …

The burden of disease has also fallen, while Paxlovid appears less effective against new strains of Covid. Even the U.S., which accounts for 54% of reported sales to date, negotiated a deal to return 7.9 million courses of unused Paxlovid in October. 

While Pfizer sold $19 billion of Paxlovid in 2022, this dropped to just $1 billion in 2023.

Paxlovid was also – predictably, given the way it works by inducing mutations in the virus – found to be likely driving the creation of infectious new variants of the virus. Way to go, pharma. Again.

And who can forget the Paxlovid rebound, where the virus often came back as soon as the treatment stopped?

Worth reading in full.

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transmissionofflame
2 years ago

Every last penny (or better every last billion££££) spent on “covid drugs” and “covid vaccines” (these are not functional products, just marketing terms) has been “wasted”.

Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago

Aren’t all the COVID drugs a waste?

Can they only be referred to as “wasted” if they weren’t first pumped into some unsuspecting, pot-banging, rainbow-waving, face-nappied victims?

Nicholas Britton
2 years ago

The real waste was to spend taxpayer’s money on this toxic, useless stuff in the first place. The dustbin is the best place for them. At least they can’t do any harm there.

huxleypiggles
2 years ago

“The dustbin is the best place for them. At least they can’t do any harm there.”

I would prefer they were incinerated. We wouldn’t want some do-gooder dumping these in our water supplies would we?

JXB
JXB
2 years ago

There are no cures or vaccines for respiratory viruses.

99.99% of people with alleged CoVid had ‘less serious’ disease – and that was prior to the so-called vaccines.

And 99.99% didn’t get the disease at all – also prior to the so-called vaccines.

Marcus Aurelius knew
2 years ago
Reply to  JXB

Not to be pedantic, just to uphold the rigourous standards of quality both above and below the line;

SARS-COV-2 is the name given to a virus which we are told exists (and which was probably made at the Wuhan Institute of Virology).

COVID-19 is the name given to the symptoms of infection with the above virus which may or may not develop in the host (mostly not, it seems, and even when they do, they’re nothing serious).

GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago

And given the number of scariants, it’s hardly accurate to refer to it as C19 anymore

huxleypiggles
2 years ago

So the £550 million could surge to £1 billion. I would suggest that in terms of stripping even more funds from the taxpayer base Billy will consider that a result 👍

evilhippo
evilhippo
2 years ago

Wasted? Wasted would be injecting them into someone, binning them is the best possible use.

A Y M
2 years ago

Paxlovid is carcinogenic.
Pretty obvious.

Orlando
Orlando
2 years ago

Molnupiravir is the mutagenic one, not paxlovid. This is also outlined in the article linked at the bottom (but obviously not read) 🤪

GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago

“reduced the risk of severe illness by almost 90%”

Relative risk, so the risk of severe illness is reduced from F-all to 10% of F-all.

Isn’t that great? Thanks Pfisser, what would we do without you?