Photo: Alan Dove Photography
Daily community cases of Covid-19 surpassed the 12,000 mark on Friday, almost double the figure from the previous day. With record numbers of people becoming ill, anti-viral treatments have been hailed as a game changer that could cut down the number of hospitalisations and deaths from the disease.
Last year the government announced it had advanced purchase agreements for 60,000 doses each of Molnupiravir and Paxlovid, but neither is available here yet and global demand is outstripping supply.
Professor Kurt Krause from the Department of Biochemistry at University of Otago says we should be looking to manufacture and develop our own anti-viral treatments and vaccines in New Zealand.
Pfizer in the making of its Covid-19 antiviral pills, Paxlovid, in Freiburg, Germany in 2021. Photo: Handout / Pfizer / AFP
