According to a new report, COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid could interact with common heart disease medication, becoming dangerous to people’s overall health. This includes some heart failure therapies.
The paper that states this was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology earlier this week and mentions multiple cardiovascular medications as well as whether or not they are safe to take along with this popular COVID medication.
As it turns out, some pills, including aspirin, are completely safe to take with Paxlovid but others could have negative interactions.
This means that they need to be discontinued or the dosage needs to be adjusted temporarily while taking Paxlovid.
Sure enough, President Joe Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, took him off Crestor and Eliquis back in July when he tested positive for COVID.
Both of them are heart medications Biden had been taken to treat his pre-existing health conditions and medical experts stress that discontinuing them poses no health risks.
The paper says that Paxlovid along with a number of blood thinners can lead to a higher risk of internal bleeding.
Furthermore, when it interacts with some cholesterol drugs, the COVID medicine can be toxic to the liver.
Finally, Paxlovid in combination with some blood pressure drugs can cause swelling, flushing and low blood pressure.
Dr. Jayne Morgan, who was not involved in writing the paper, explains that “There are some drugs that you simply will not be able to stop, and a doctor will have to make a decision. It’s a risk-benefit analysis. You’ve got to make the diagnosis and then stop your drugs and have all of that done in time to still meet that five-day window.”
Dr. Sarju Ganatra, the paper’s senior author, also states that “Awareness of the presence of drug-drug interactions of Paxlovid with common cardiovascular drugs is key. System-level interventions by integrating drug-drug interactions into electronic medical records could help avoid related adverse events. Consultation with other members of the health care team, particularly pharmacists, can prove to be extremely valuable. However, a health care provider’s fundamental understanding of the drug-drug interactions with cardiovascular medications is key.”
These potentially dangerous interactions between Paxlovid and some cardiovascular drugs are quite well known as they have been reported before.
Regardless, doctors have been prescribing the COVID medication so much that it’s safe to say some doctors and patients are not as informed about the dangers as they should be and the paper seeks to change that.