Corporate Medicine, Government X-Rays
Pfizer’s trial of a new medicine for COVID-19, produced with support from the US Department of Energy, could improve access to treatment
Lighting hits the Advanced Photon Source building at the Argonne National Laboratory, just outside Chicago. Photo credit: Lawrie Skinner, flickr.com
In a study of over 1200 participants recently diagnosed with COVID-19, researchers found that Paxlovid – a new oral antiviral treatment from Pfizer – reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in high-risk adults by 89 percent. The FDA and independent monitors have since recommended Pfizer move to the next stage of regulatory application. However, the FDA is not the only branch of the US government the drug has come into contact with. Paxlovid was planned, designed, and created using the ultrabright X-rays of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.
Should Paxlovid achieve authorization, it could be prescribed as an accessible, at-home treatment with the potential to combat multiple kinds of coronavirus. However, as wealthy countries begin placing large orders for the drug, some observers are concerned that the result will be reduced or nonexistent access to Paxlovid in the developing world.
Between studying for my English undergrad and Publishing master's degrees I was out in Shanghai, teaching, learning, and getting extremely lost. Now I'm expanding my mind down a rather different rabbit hole: the pharmaceutical industry. Outside of this job I read mountains of fiction and philosophy, and I must say, it's very hard to tell who's sharper: the literati, or the medicine makers.
