Source: CNBC.com
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization to Pfizer’s Covid treatment pill, a major milestone that promises to revolutionize the fight against the virus.
The medication, which is recommended for people at a high risk of developing severe Covid-19, could be available to patients as early as this weekend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to quickly follow suit with its seal of approval, authorizing its distribution.
The FDA cleared the pill for patients 12 and up with mild to moderate Covid who are most likely to end up hospitalized or not survive. The agency said it should be prescribed as soon as possible after diagnosis and within five days of symptom onset.
The company reiterated Wednesday that it’s ready to start delivery in the U.S. immediately.
Pfizer’s pill is the first oral antiviral drug authorized by the FDA that is specifically designed to fight Covid. The authorization comes at a crucial turning point in the pandemic, as hospital systems across the U.S. have been battered by a wave of delta infections, and are now bracing for another wave of patients infected with the highly contagious omicron variant.
While the FDA said vaccines are the first line of defense against Covid, the drug provides a new tool in its fight against the virus. While the vaccines have proven effective in preventing severe illness from the virus, health-care providers need medications to treat the tens of millions of people in the U.S. who still have not gotten vaccinated. The pill, if delivered in time, could help alleviate the strain on health-care systems during an expected wave of omicron infections.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an FDA advisor, said that the development is good news, but immunizing unvaccinated people remains the ultimate goal.
“Would you be more likely to take this drug than you would to get a vaccine? I think the answer to that question is yes,” Offit said in a phone interview. “So therefore it is of value for those 40 million, 50 million people in this country who simply refuse to be vaccinated. I mean, this may keep them out of the hospital.”
The U.S. has purchased 10 million courses of Pfizer’s treatment, Paxlovid, in a $5 billion deal. President Joe Biden said in November that his administration is working to ensure that the treatments are free and accessible. Biden said last month that delivery would start by the new year and continue through 2022.
Merck has contracted with the U.S. government to supply at least 3 million courses of its pill, molnupiravir, which is still awaiting clearance, for $2.2 billion. The FDA declined to comment on Merck’s drug.
Pfizer’s treatment is administered in two 150 milligram tablets along with a 100 milligram tablet of an HIV drug, ritonavir, twice daily. The HIV drug helps slow the patient’s metabolism, which allows Paxlovid to remain active in the body at a higher concentration for a longer period.
Merck’s 800 milligram pill is taken every 12 hours for five days after symptom onset. The drug was developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.