About this episode
This episode discusses the failure of Paxlovid in recent clinical trials and its implications for research translation.
Paxlovid is dead. Again. Last month Pfizer’s pill for Covid failed in two large trials published together in the New England Journal of Medicine . The bigger one, with roughly 1,700 participants per group, found 14 people assigned to Paxlovid were hospitalized versus 11 in the control group. No benefit—and leaning in the wrong direction. This was a long time coming. But it’s definitely been coming. I’ve written a handful of pieces on Paxlovid, including the hidden studies, nasty side effects , FDA path , and more. Which is why a post-mortem might tell us something about our information ecosystem, and how careful translation of research has the potential to change the world. To illustrate, below is a timeline of Paxlovid’s major trials. Green dots indicate a trial that found benefit, red dots mean a trial in which the drug failed. RT is 100% reader-supported, and I’d love to keep doing it. To help that happen, please become a paid subscriber. The first trial, a green dot from 2022, represents the trial that led to the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization. It was preliminary, rushed, and never intended as a final answer. In it, researchers tested the drug exclusively in people who…
People in this episode
Host: David Newman
Topics covered
- Paxlovid
- COVID-19
- clinical trials
- FDA
- healthcare research
- drug efficacy
Keywords
- Paxlovid
- Pfizer
- COVID-19 treatment
- clinical trials
- FDA authorization
- drug efficacy
- healthcare research
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Pfizer
Products: Paxlovid
Books & works: New England Journal of Medicine
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