The drug, sold under the brand name Paxlovid, was highly effective at preventing severe disease in vulnerable adults who received doses soon after they began showing signs of infectious disease during trials. It is a combination treatment, in which three tablets are given twice a day.
Antiviral drug is the second drug of its kind in the market that shows efficacy against covid. This new antiviral drug offers greater protection than one developed by another US pharmaceutical company, Merck, which awaits authorization in the US and received approval in the UK yesterday.
Soon after the antiviral drug’s efficacy results in a clinical trial emerged, the pharmaceutical giant closed the study. He said the board of experts overseeing the trial was so convinced that they decided to stop the trial at an early stage.
The company has yet to disclose the full finding on the trial, but they plan to submit the data to the US Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible to obtain authorization for use of the pill.
In the initial finding, Pfizer analyzed 1,219 patients who were at increased risk of hospitalization or death following a diagnosis of mild to moderate COVID-19 and the presence of at least one factor that could lead to severe infection, such as: Obesity or older age.
The team of researchers found that only 0.8 percent of those given Pfizer’s antiviral drug within three days of the onset of COVID symptoms were hospitalized, while none died for 28 days after treatment. They compared the data to a 7 percent hospitalization rate for placebo patients, which resulted in seven deaths.
Based on the initial trial of the study, the company said in its statement that antivirals need to be given as soon as possible to reduce the risk of complications. For the drug to be most effective, that is, within three days, the infection can be controlled by causing serious damage to the virus before it occurs.
“We saw that we had high efficacy, even if it was five days after a patient was treated … really providing benefits from a public health standpoint,” Annalisa Anderson, head of the Pfizer program, told Reuters. .
So far, the company has not released the details of the side effects of its antiviral drug. He only said that the adverse effect occurs only in 20 per cent of the cases.
Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, said: “These data show that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, can save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and reduce the risk of over-the-counter viral infections. Nine out of these have the potential to eliminate hospitals.” in a statement.
Pfizer plans to produce more than 180,000 packs by the end of 2021 and at least 50 million by the end of 2022.
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