(Ottawa) New Minister of Public Services and Procurement Filomena Tassi has made her first purchases: oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, of which Canada has obtained approximately 1.5 million doses, plus an option for an additional 500,000 tablets.
The government has entered into agreements with the pharmaceuticals Pfizer (1 million drugs) and Merck (500,000 tablets, with the possibility of having access to 500,000 more doses). In doing so, Canada has “an additional tool in its toolbox”, welcomed the Minister at a press conference on Friday.
The two treatments have not yet obtained the seal of approval from Health Canada, but as soon as they are approved, they will be shipped to the provinces and territories, said with him the Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos. , which gave advance notice to its provincial and territorial partners last Tuesday.
This does not change the fact that vaccination is “decisive” in the fight against COVID-19, but it remains “vital that everyone in Canada have access to potential treatments”, pleaded Minister Duclos. He explained that these oral treatments were more convenient than others that are available, but intravenously.
“There are antiviral drugs that exist at the moment, but these are intravenous treatments, which must be given in a hospital context, and that is complicated for the patient, it is also complicated for the hospital – we know the difficult conditions in which nurses and doctors work, ”he said.
Pharmaceuticals Merck filed an authorization request for its product, molnupiravir, on August 13 with Health Canada. As for the manufacturer Pfizer, it presented its dossier for its tablets (a combination of paxlovid and ritonavir) on 1er last december. In both cases, several doses should be taken over a few days.