Everything to know about the Covid-19 oral treatment at pharmacies

New Covid-19 oral medications are now available at pharmacies, but industry experts have warned not everyone will be able to get their hands on it. Here’s what you need to know.

Medication used to treat Covid-19 is now available from community pharmacists, however industry experts have warned not everyone will be able to get their hands on it.

There are now two antiviral medications, Lagevrio and Paxlovid, that can be bought with a prescription at Queensland pharmacies.

The medications were initially only available in a hospital setting before being offered to Covid-positive patients in pharmacists around the start of the month.

However, Chris Owen, president of The Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s Queensland branch, said it should be known that not everyone will be allowed to access the new oral treatments.

“The medications are only available for those with certain preconditions,” he said.

“They reduce the severity of illness and reduce the hospitalisation risk. But for those who aren’t at risk, there’s not much of a reduction in the rate of hospitalisation because it’s already so low.”

The drug Paxlovid is available for the treatment of Covid-19. Picture: Mark Wilson

According to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the criteria for both medications includes people 65 years or older with two high risk factors for developing severe disease, people 75 years or older with one high-risk factor, moderately to severely immunocompromised people irrespective of vaccination status and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years or older with two additional high-risk factors for developing severe disease.

Meanwhile, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding shouldn’t take the oral medications, and those who have severe kidney or liver disease shouldn’t have Paxlovid.

Despite previous reports, Mr Owen said there hasn’t been a shortage of the drugs, but there is currently a lack of demand that’s impacting supply.

“We’re just starting to see demand following a bit of a spike in Covid cases … but to stock it proactively on pharmacy shelves there needs to be demand. We’re just in this transition period now,” he said.

“It takes some time to normalise but pharmacists have been proactively sourcing stock so if people can’t find it at their local pharmacy then definitely look elsewhere, or alternatively there will just be a day’s wait.”

Last week, Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler said the oral medications were a “wonderful development” however the government needed to work on lifting awareness.

“We know that if there’s better uptake, it will drive the hospitalisation rates down, which is obviously much better for the people involved, but also will relieve some of the strain we’re still seeing on our hospital systems across the country,” he said to ABC Melbourne radio.

Mr Butler also said advisory groups would continue to monitor the criteria and whether it needed to be broadened to cover a wider group.

Originally published as Everything to know about the Covid-19 oral treatment at pharmacies