It is the second anticovid pill after Merck’s, which is actually a renowned flu medicine for fighting the coronavirus.
The Pfizer laboratory announced this Friday that a clinical trial on its anticovid pill showed high effectiveness.
It is the second anticovid pill after Merck’s, which is actually a renowned flu medicine for fighting the coronavirus.
Pfizer’s was created specifically to fight COVID.
The drug, called Paxlovid, was able to lower the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% among adult COVID-19 patients at high risk of developing severe forms of the disease, Pfizer said.
The results of this intermediate clinical trial are so good that the US laboratory said it will stop recruiting new people for testing and will send the data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as soon as possible, as part of its “ongoing submission.” to obtain authorization for emergency use.
“These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or licensed by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of 10 hospitalizations.” added.
The main analysis of the trial evaluated data from 1,219 adults in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Pfizer began developing its anticovid drug in March 2020, the first specifically designed against coronavirus.
Pfizer’s product is known as a “protease inhibitor” and has been shown in laboratory tests to block the replication machinery of the virus.
If it works, it is likely only effective in the early stages of infection, as by the time COVID progresses to severe disease, the virus largely stops replicating and patients experience a more active immune response.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a simple pill has been sought to combat the coronavirus, but so far, anticovid therapies – such as monoclonal antibodies and Gilead’s remdesivir, authorized for use in the EU under the name Veklury – have been intravenously.
Several laboratories are working on oral antivirals that would mimic the influenza drug Tamiflu and prevent the disease from progressing to serious stages.
The United Kingdom, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, became the first country to approve an anticovid pill on Thursday, giving the green light to the use of Merck’s antiviral drug, molnupiravir, to treat patients suffering from mild to moderate coronavirus.
“This is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral against covid-19 that can be taken at home,” said Health Minister Sajid Javid in a statement. . “It will change the situation of the most vulnerable and the immunosuppressed, who will soon be able to receive the revolutionary treatment,” he added.
Molnupiravir was initially developed as an inhibitor of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (two other major acute respiratory infections) by a team from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The UK announced on October 20 an order for 480,000 doses of molnupiravir.