The antiviral nirmatrelvir–ritonavir does not reduce hospitalisation or mortality rates in high-risk vaccinated patients with COVID-19, new research suggests.

The Federal Government has spent an estimated $840 million on nirmatrelvir–ritonavir (Paxlovid) through the PBS between 2022 and 2025, including 100,000 subsidised scripts last year for the medication, which costs about $1100 per course.

A New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) paper published last month suggests that, while treatment was associated with faster recovery and reduced viral load, some 99.2% of high-risk patients avoid death or hospitalisation with usual care without medication.

This was based on a total of 4232 patients aged 50 or older or with other risk factors — 3516 from the UK PANORAMIC trial and 716 from the Canadian CanTreatCOVID trial.