Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 antivirals are sitting on shelves across Canada

Health Canada has distributed enough of the antiviral Paxlovid to treat more than 700,000 people with COVID-19, yet the provinces have given only a fraction of that medication to patients. 

Paxlovid has been shown to significantly reduce hospitalizations and deaths among people most at risk from COVID-19, such as seniors and people with compromised immune systems. It's a combination of pills that can be obtained for free with a prescription and taken at home, but must be started within five days of symptoms appearing. 

Research by CBC News finds that the provinces have dispensed less than 15 per cent of their Paxlovid supply since the medication was approved in January.

This low usage rate means hundreds of thousands of treatment courses are sitting unused across Canada. That's prompting questions about why more people aren't getting an antiviral that could help keep them out of hospital, especially with health systems across the country under strain.

Paxlovid is "an incredible therapy," said Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases specialist who helps lead a COVID-19 outpatient clinic at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, Ont. 

"There certainly are people that are being hospitalized for COVID that unfortunately didn't have access to this treatment," he said in an interview.

"There's a bed crunch in the emergency rooms, we know there's a bed crunch on the [hospital] wards. Any person we can prevent from landing in one of these health care beds … is a win for the system." 

A key concern raised by medical professionals interviewed by CBC News is that too many Canadians who could benefit from Paxlovid simply don't know the medication is available.

Jim Catty, an 88-year-old in Toronto, had never heard of Paxlovid when he fell ill with COVID-19 in April. 

"I had pain in every muscle in my body," Catty said in an interview

A home care nurse who was caring for Catty's wife for unrelated reasons knew about Paxlovid. She contacted his doctor to arrange for a prescription. 

"I was one of the luckiest people in that I was well looked after," Catty said. "I had my medicine immediately, and I got well fairly fast."

When Paxlovid was first approved, at the peak of the Omicron wave of COVID-19, the supply was limited and the provinces put strict limitations on eligibility, making it unavailable to the vast bulk of the population.

Supply is no longer a problem. In addition to the 730,000 treatment courses already shipped, the federal government has procured another 770,000 to be distributed by the end of the year, said a statement from the Public Health Agency of Canada.