Britain has the highest unused stock of Paxlovid in Europe, with an estimated 1 million expired courses
More than 1.5 million courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral drug Paxlovid have expired unused in European countries by the end of November, the health analytics firm Airfinty has revealed.
It is predicted that the figure could surge to 3.1 million, at a value of $2.2 billion (around £1.73 billion), by the end of Feb 2024.
According to Airfinty analysis, Britain has the highest unused stock, with an estimated one million expired drug courses worth $700 million (over £550 million).
With 2.2 million courses estimated to expire unused by the end of June 2024 due to the low prescription of the antiviral in the country, the total drug value wasted in the UK could reach $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion), the report added.
Paxlovid wastage was also reported from other European countries including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, as prescriptions and uptake for the drug dropped significantly across the continent.
Over 200,000 courses of the antiviral drug expired before they were prescribed in Spain, and close to 100,000 in France.
Airfinity’s Life Science Analyst Marco Gallotta cited reduction in testing and lower COVID-19 cases in 2023 as reasons for the drug wastage.
“Governments were keen to buy the highly efficacious antiviral and had a difficult challenge of estimating demand at a critical stage in the pandemic. This doesn’t necessarily mean that higher uptake wasn’t desirable or could have saved lives and hospitalizations, but the reduction in testing has reduced demand.
“Despite some countries like the US removing the requirement of a positive test when prescribing Paxlovid earlier this year, this drug is typically given upon a positive test.
“Another driver is the lower disease burden in 2023, which of course means reduced demand for treatments. Together, all this means countries haven’t been able to administer all of their stockpiles before they expire, despite extensions to the shelf life of Paxlovid,” he said.
Pfizer’s Paxlovid hit the market at the beginning of 2022 after clinical trial data showed it can reduce the risk of severe illness by almost 90 per cent. It is used to treat mild-to-moderate COVID‑19 in high-risk patients, particularly people who are immunocompromised or above the age of 65.
Demand for the drug increased when the new Omicron variant led to an unprecedented surge in infections around the world, but sales declined sharply as “uptake of the drug remained low.”
Pfizer generated $19 billion from sale of Paxlovid in 2022, which dropped to just $1 billion in 2023, which is believed to be largely exacerbated by the US, the largest buyer of the drug, returning unused stock.
