Additional Purchase of 800,000 Paxlovid Doses and 142,000 Lagevrio Doses (Update)

On January 14th, Paxlovid, an oral treatment for COVID-19, was delivered to a pharmacy in Guro-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] An additional 940,000 doses of oral COVID-19 treatments Paxlovid and Lagevrio will be introduced in South Korea.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced on the 9th that on the 4th, they signed additional purchase contracts with Pfizer for 800,000 doses of Paxlovid and with MSD for 142,000 doses of Lagevrio.

Accordingly, the total contracted purchase volume of oral treatments has reached 2,004,000 doses, with 1,762,000 doses of Paxlovid and 242,000 doses of Lagevrio.

The contracted Paxlovid doses will be delivered domestically with 200,000 doses in the second half of this year and 600,000 doses in the first half of next year. All contracted Lagevrio doses are scheduled to be introduced in the second half of this year. However, authorities plan to shorten the delivery schedule for additional purchases if necessary depending on the quarantine situation to ensure sufficient supply of oral treatments.

As of the 3rd, 962,000 doses of Paxlovid have been introduced and prescribed to 303,000 patients. The remaining stock is 659,000 doses. For Lagevrio, out of 100,000 doses introduced, 30,000 have been used, leaving 70,000 doses remaining.

Previously, to actively utilize oral treatments, the quarantine authorities expanded the number of in-hospital prescription institutions from 45 to 1,076 and increased the number of responsible pharmacies from 1,000 to 1,850. Posters guiding active administration to high-risk groups were distributed, and to promote prescriptions by medical staff, the input of medication history through the patient management information system was suspended starting from the 29th of last month.

Im Sook-young, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters' Situation Management Division, stated, "We will make efforts to establish a systemic foundation so that oral treatments can be actively utilized to minimize severe cases and deaths."