(LONDON) – Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. signed an agreement with a United Nations-backed group to allow other manufacturers to produce their experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could provide a treatment for more than half of the population. world number.
In a statement released Tuesday, Pfizer said it would license the antiviral drug to the Geneva-based Drug Patent Organization, allowing conventional drug companies to manufacture the drug. for use in 95 countries, about 53% of the world’s population. .
The agreement excludes several major countries already ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak. For example, while a Brazilian pharmaceutical company can get a license to manufacture pills for export to other countries, the drug cannot be made generically for use in Brazil.
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However, health officials say the fact that the deal was made even before Pfizer’s drug was authorized anywhere, could help end the pandemic faster.
“It is quite important that we will be able to provide access to a seemingly effective and newly developed drug to more than 4 billion people,” said Esteban Burrone, head of policy at the Patent Foundation Drugs, said.
He estimates that other drugmakers will be able to start making the drug within months, but admits that the deal won’t please everyone.
“We strive to strike a very delicate balance between the interests of [company], sustainability is demanded by general producers and, most importantly, public health needs in lower and middle income countries,” said Burrone.
Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries and will waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement during COVID-19. -19 remains a public health emergency.
Earlier this month, Pfizer said its pill reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections. Independent experts recommend stopping the company’s research based on its promising results.
Pfizer said it would ask the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators to authorize the drug as soon as possible.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, researchers worldwide have been racing to develop a COVID-19 pill that can be easily taken at home to ease symptoms, speed up recover and save people from having to go to the hospital. Currently, most COVID-19 treatments must be given intravenously or by injection.
Britain approved Merck’s COVID-19 pill earlier this month, and it is awaiting approval elsewhere. In a similar deal with the Drug Patent Organization announced in October, Merck agreed to let other drugmakers make the COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, available in 105 poorer countries.
Doctors Without Borders said it was “disappointed” by the Pfizer agreement not to make the drug available worldwide, noting that the agreement announced Tuesday also excludes countries including China. China, Argentina and Thailand.
“The world now knows that access to COVID-19 medical tools needs to be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere,” said Yuanqiong Hu, senior legal policy advisor at Doctors Without Borders. everywhere, if we really want to get this pandemic under control.
Pfizer and Merck’s decision to share their COVID-19 drug patent stands in stark contrast to Pfizer and other vaccine makers’ refusal to release their vaccine formulations for wider production. . A center set up by the World Health Organization in South Africa to share messenger RNA vaccine formulations and technologies failed to attract a single pharmaceutical participant.
Less than 1% of Pfizer’s COVID-19 snapshots go to poorer countries.
