The Pfizer says that their antiviral tablet is quite successful in treating covid. Pfizer stated on Friday that its Covid-19 treatment tablet was shown to be very successful in preventing severe disease in at-risk persons who took the therapy shortly after symptoms appeared in a critical clinical trial, making it the second antiviral pill to demonstrate efficacy against Covid.
The medicine looks to be more effective than a comparable Merck product that is seeking government approval. When administered within three days of the onset of symptoms, The Pfizer medication, which will be marketed under the brand name Paxlovid, reduces the chance of hospitalisation or death by 89 percent.
Pfizer stated that an independent board of experts overseeing its clinical trial advised that the research be terminated early due to the drug’s demonstrable benefit to patients. The business stated that it intended to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible in order to obtain approval for the pill’s usage in the United States.
“The results are truly beyond our wildest aspirations,” Annaliesa Anderson, a Pfizer executive who oversaw the drug’s development, said. She expressed optimism that Paxlovid “can have a significant influence on helping all of our lives return to normal and witnessing the end of the pandemic.”
The introduction of a new class of simple medications that drastically cut hospitalizations might help bring the pandemic’s most severe phase to an end, at least in wealthier nations where most people have been immunised.
The Pfizer and Merck tablets, which may be delivered and taken at home, are likely to reach many more individuals than monoclonal antibody therapies, which are typically administered by intravenous infusion at a clinic.
The Pfizer medicine might be accessible in the coming months, though supplies will most likely be limited at first. Both the Pfizer and Merck tablets are aimed at high-risk individuals, such as those over the age of 60 or with disorders like obesity that make them more vulnerable to severe Covid side effects.
President Biden stated on Friday that the pill would be “another weapon in our arsenal to shield people from the worst results of Covid,” but that immunisation remained the best way to avoid infections.
The Pfizer hopes to be able to create enough tablets for more than 180,000 people by the end of this year, and more than 21 million people in the first half of next year. Merck has also stated that it intends to increase output during the coming year.
According to a senior administration official, the US government has been negotiating with Pfizer for enough tablets for 1.7 million courses of therapy, with an extra option for 3.3 million. That is roughly the same amount that the US has ordered from Merck. According to the official, the government plans to pay around $700 per treatment course for both medications.
