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"Front-line health care providers should have the availability of the medication so they can treat patients right in the office, without having to worry about filling prescriptions," Dr. Whitley said.
In theory, intravenous peramivir should be "relatively easy for any physician’s office that can handle relatively short IV infusions," according to Dr. Sheridan, who said that physicians would have a choice of using either a butterfly needle on the back of the hand, or an IV cannula in any other accessible vein, infusing the drug in between 15 and 30 minutes.
But questions about what to do if a doctor’s schedule can’t accommodate a patient or if the only access to a provider is through a so-called "minute clinic" are the domain of public health officials.
"There are always these real-world issues, and if there is a pandemic, then public health officials will have to look at the trade-offs," Dr. Schmidt said.
Dr. Whitley reported having no relevant disclosures, but noted that he is on the board of Gilead Sciences, maker of oseltamivir. Dr. Sheridan is the chief medical officer of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, maker of peramivir. The two international studies were funded by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and BioCryst and were conducted at multiple centers in consecutive flu seasons between 2006 and 2008.
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