COVID-19 drug Paxlovid has been free; next year, sticker shock awaits

COVID-19 drug Paxlovid has been free; next year, sticker shock awaits Nearly 6 million Americans have taken Paxlovid for free, courtesy of the federal government. But the government plans to stop footing the bill within months. UPI

... soon the Department of Health and Human Services will stop supplying COVID-19 treatments, and pharmacies will purchase and bill for them the same way they do for antibiotic pills or asthma inhalers. Paxlovid is expected to hit the private market in mid-2023, according to HHS plans shared in an October meeting with state health officials and clinicians. Merck's Lagevrio, a less-effective COVID-19 treatment pill, and AstraZeneca's Evusheld, a preventive therapy for the immunocompromised, are on track to be commercialized sooner, sometime in the winter.

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