Antiviral COVID-19 Pill: Now, Pfizer To Seek Emergency Use Nod

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New York: Another antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 is in the offing.

Pfizer will submit interim trial results for its pill Paxlovid – prescribed in combination with an older antiviral called ritonavir — to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of emergency use application it opened last month.

A trial, which was stopped earlier, showed the experimental pill can cut by 89% chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease, Pfizer Inc said on Friday.

The results are better than Merck & Co Inc’s pill molnupiravir, which showed last month it could to halve the threat of death or being hospitalized for COVID patients at high risk of serious illness.

The complete trial data is not yet available from either company, though it was approved by UK regulators earlier this week.

“Data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations,” Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in a statement.

Pfizer’s drug belongs to protease inhibitors category, and blocks an enzyme that the coronavirus needs in order to multiply.