When Will COVID-19 Pills Be Available In Alabama?

ALABAMA — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will soon make decisions regarding COVID-19 pills from Merck and Pfizer, clearing the way for millions of Americans to pick-up treatments for the coronavirus at their local pharmacy possibly by the end of the year.

The medication is meant to treat the virus once a patient is infected with it, and it will not prevent a person from getting COVID-19.

Both pills have limited the severity of coronavirus cases, cutting hospitalization and death rates. Study results for the Pfizer pill, which were released Tuesday, showed the pill reduced combined hospitalizations and deaths by about 89 percent among 2,250 high-risk adults when taken shortly after initial COVID-19 symptoms. That was better than the Merck pill, which reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 30 percent in high-risk adults and was submitted for final FDA approval late last month.

Dr. Scott Harris of the Alabama Department of Public Health reminded Alabamians that the pills, if approved, are not substitutes for the current vaccine available to stop the virus, and are meant to treat the virus once a patient is infected with it, not prevent a person from getting COVID-19.

"I believe it’s a total of 40 pills that you have to take for a five-day period, and you have to do it within the first five days of being infected, so that’s not going to work for everybody," Harris said in a statement in November. "Please don’t wait if you are not vaccinated — don’t sit around and see what else comes down the pike later."

Although the omicron variant of the coronavirus has not hit Alabama yet, the state is still reporting approximately 300 COVID-19 cases per day.

In Pfizer's studies, adults taking the company's drug had a 10-fold decrease in virus levels compared with those on placebo — enough to possibly keep them out of the hospital, which is welcome news in Alabama, where hospitals still struggle with shortages of doctors and nurses.

A challenge from the pills cited by health experts is that high-risk patients infected with COVID-10 may not be able to get tested and treated in the three-day timeframe. Studies of a similar drug used to limit the impact of influenza show that only 40 percent of high-risk patients got diagnosed within the three-day window to begin treatment.

Patch reporter Dave Copeland contributed to this report.