[ad_1]
The coronavirus in Sweden
Sweden continues to buy and use remdesivir, the aforementioned covid drug, despite the WHO’s advice to do so.
“We think there is still a place for belt detox,” says Charlotta Bergquist of the Agency for Medical Products.
This summer, the drug was approved in the EU after, among other things, that the Swedish Medical Products Agency evaluated the preparation according to what the authority itself writes, “an exceptionally short time”.
In November it was However, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a recommendation against the use of strapsivir against covid-19 at all, after establishing that the drug has no effect on mortality.
However, Sweden’s attitude has not changed. The studies that the Medical Products Agency has analyzed focus on other perspectives.
“The WHO has only looked at mortality, which is a pretty rough measure,” says Charlotta Bergquist, group manager and vaccine coordinator for the Medical Products Agency.
Bergquist believes that it is true that stradesivir does not have a proven effect on mortality, but the drug has a proven effect on length of care for a specific group of patients. Covid patients, who are in an early stage of the disease and who receive supplemental oxygen, can go home from the hospital several days earlier if they receive strapsivir. The WHO has not taken this into account in its study, even though the results are the basis for EU approval.
That is why the Medical Products Agency believes that remdesivir can continue to be used for the specific patient group, even if it deviates from the WHO position.
“We stand up for what is approved,” says Charlotta Bergquist.
TT: Isn’t it strange that the WHO didn’t take your perspective into account?
“It is difficult for me to comment.”
The authority is supported by the Swedish Infectious Diseases Society, which has developed a national care program on how care should treat COVID-19. The care program recommends remdesivir for those in the early stages of the disease who are also receiving supplemental oxygen.
An updated version will be available soon, and the recommended use of the strap splitter will be largely the same, says President Lars-Magnus Andersson, who is also an operations manager for the infection clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg.
“But it is used relatively little and when individual patients meet the criteria we think it can make a difference,” he says.
The Swedish asset of the drug is enough for those who need it right now, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. Sweden received a donation earlier this year with a secret number of doses from the manufacturer Gilead Sciences and doses purchased by the European Commission. The National Board of Health and Welfare itself has also purchased a total of 8,500 doses, for approximately 1,400 patients, which have been resold to healthcare.
“We’ll buy it as long as we see there’s a need,” says Marie State, director of the drug office for the National Board of Health and Welfare.
