According to Reuters reported on the 14th, Pfizer said on Tuesday that its new coronavirus oral drug Paxlovid is close to 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths of high-risk patients, and recent laboratory data show that the drug is still effective against the rapidly spreading Omiljung variant.
New coronavirus oral drug Paxlovid Image source: People's Vision
The U.S. drugmaker said last month that interim analysis of clinical trials involving about 1,200 people showed that the oral drug was about 89 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations or deaths compared to the control group. The final analysis of the clinical trial released on Tuesday also included data on another 1,000 people. Among all those who took paxlovid oral medicine, there were no deaths, compared with 12 deaths in the control group that did not take this oral drug.
"This is an amazing result," Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, said in an interview. "What we're talking about is saving an alarming number of lives and avoiding hospitalizations. Of course, if you take this medication quickly after an infection, we have the potential to drastically reduce transmission. ”
Pfizer also released early data from another study in which taking the drug reduced hospitalization rates by about 70 percent in a trial of standard-risk adults, including some high-risk vaccinated populations.
Dorston said he expects the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies to soon approve the drug for use by high-risk groups. "We have very deep regulatory dialogues with Europe and the UK, and we are also having conversations with most of the major regulators around the world," he said.
The company said 180,000 courses of the oral drug will be ready to ship this year and plans to produce at least 80 million more courses of the drug needed in 2022.
Dorston said Pfizer is looking to expand production further as the newly discovered Opmi kerong could significantly increase the demand for antiviral drugs. Existing vaccines appear to be less effective at preventing Infection in Amiqueron.
At present, the United States has not approved any oral drugs to treat COVID-19. Analysts predict that the drug will bring more than $24 billion in revenue to Pfizer in 2022, enough to make up for declining sales of vaccines after 2021.
In addition, Pfizer's rival Merck has also requested an emergency use permit (EUA) for its anti-coronavirus drug molnupiravir. But in clinical trials, the drug has only reduced hospitalization and mortality rates in high-risk patients by about 30 percent.
Some scientists have also expressed concern that Merck's drug could lead to birth defects and could lead to viral mutations.
(Editor: ZLQ)