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This Pill Can Prevent You From Getting Covid-19 After Exposure to the Disease-Causing Virus, According to a Clinical Trial
Key takeaways
- The drug ensitrelvir, under the brand name Xocova, was recently approved in Japan as a post-exposure protection against Covid-19.
- The experimental pill could be especially useful for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
- Ensitrelvir was developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi.
The drug ensitrelvir, under the brand name Xocova, was recently approved in Japan as a post-exposure protection against Covid-19. Carol Yepes via Getty Images After more than six years of humans living with Covid-19, we might finally have a pill that can prevent the disease after exposure to the SARS-Co V-2 virus.
The oral drug, called ensitrelvir, significantly reduced the risk of getting sick among individuals who lived with someone ill with Covid-19, according to clinical trial results published May 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The experimental pill could be especially useful for older adults and people with weakened immune systems.
“It’s wonderful to have another preventative modality available to people who are exposed to Covid, particularly those in high-risk circumstances,” says William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, to Korin Miller at Prevention.