U.S. government researchers are urgently planning studies of how often and why SARS-CoV-2 levels rebound in some COVID-19 patients who have completed a five-day course of treatment with Pfizer’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 CDC, he said.
Little is known about the rebound cases, including how frequently they occur.
The only case reported in the medical literature is a preprint posted Tuesday (April 26) on Research Square by researchers at the VA Boston Healthcare System.