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Pfizer released news late Friday that Paxlovid, the antiviral currently subject to a big push from the U.S. government, failed to prevent people living with Covid patients from catching the infection. The news is one of several bad headlines for the new Covid pill, but one experts say doesn’t affect the medicine’s primary use: treating people who are already sick. Paul Sax, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said he would “absolutely” prescribe Paxlovid to people at high risk of severe disease who have Covid. “Without hesitation,” he said. “Because the net benefit in the high risk study was extremely high.” (Herper, 3/2)

Pfizer Inc on Friday said a large trial found that its COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid was not effective at preventing coronavirus infection in people living with someone infected with the virus. The trial enrolled 3,000 adults who were household contacts exposed to an individual who was experiencing symptoms and had recently tested positive for COVID-19. They were either given Paxlovid for five or 10 days or a placebo. (Beasley, 4/29)

U.S. government researchers are planning studies of how often and why coronavirus levels rebound in some Covid patients who have completed a five-day course of treatment with Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid. “It is a priority,” said Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calling the issue “a pretty urgent thing for us to get a handle on.” The agency is discussing a variety of possible epidemiological and clinical studies to examine post-Paxlovid rebound with scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said. (Langreth and Muller, 4/29)

Kathrin Jansen, the vaccine researcher who led Pfizer’s collaboration with BioNTech to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, will retire later this year, the company said. “Throughout my lifetime I’ve had the pleasure of knowing remarkable scientists, yet there are few who have made as deep and wide a contribution to human health as Kathrin,” said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and research chief, in a post on LinkedIn announcing Jansen’s retirement. “Through her commitment to excellence and tenacity, and the vaccines that she has helped develop over her illustrious career, Kathrin has touched the lives of billions of people across all ages.” (Herper, 4/29)