(Bloomberg) --
The U.S. government is finishing plans to make Pfizer Inc.'s Covid-19 pill available at any pharmacy across the country, with supply increasing as the BA.2 sub-variant drives an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.
The administration will outline a plan next week aimed at getting the pill, Paxlovid, to additional people who'd otherwise face a more serious case of Covid-19, an administration official said Friday. The official asked not to be identified ahead of an announcement.
Use of oral antiviral pills in the U.S. jumped 103% between March 27 and April 10, the official said. The White House wants to drive that number higher, and signal to health providers to err on the side of prescribing the pills, rather than worrying about scarcity.
“We're working to make sure doctors and patients know about Paxlovid,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. It was in limited supply after its FDA approval in December, she said.
“That's not the case anymore. It's widely available, and the eligibility criteria are pretty expansive,” she said.
Shipments of the pills, which take months to make, had been scheduled to soar in April. Early on, they were in short supply and very difficult to find.
Paxlovid's availability remains a patchwork in some places. The administration announced a test-to-treat system in Biden's State of the Union speech, in which people could immediately get Paxlovid at certain pharmacies after testing positive.
About 2,000 of those locations are available so far, with more to come, the official said. In total, Paxlovid is available now at about 20,000 locations nationally. The administration plans to allow every pharmacy that wants the pill to order Paxlovid directly from the federal government, the official said.
Several pharmacy chains declined to comment or did not respond to questions about the move. Following FDA authorization of Paxlovid and Merck & Co.'s Covid therapy molnupiravir, a limited number of Rite Aid pharmacies began receiving a small supply of the treatments.
Now, almost 90% of Rite Aid stores across 17 U.S. states offer the pills. Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk said supplies had steadily increased and varied by location.
Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are ticking up across the U.S. -- in conjunction with mayors, states, the federal government and the courts withdrawing virtually all measures to reduce spread of the virus -- but both remain well below highs seen earlier this year.
Rising use of the pills underscores the White House's call for more funding from Congress. The U.S. has ordered 20 million courses of Paxlovid, but can't complete the purchase until lawmakers authorize more spending.
Paxlovid has been shown to be highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death in Covid patients. It's expected to be among the fastest-selling therapies of all time, with revenue of almost $24 billion in 2022, according to one forecast.
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