A COVID-19 pop-up test is placed on a Manhattan street in October in New York City. On Tuesday, Pfizer released promising data on a COVID-19 treatment pill.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
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Spencer Platt / Getty Images
A COVID-19 pop-up test is placed on a Manhattan street in October in New York City. On Tuesday, Pfizer released promising data on a COVID-19 treatment pill.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Pfizer release additional data The COVID-19 pill shows it is effective in preventing hospitalization and death when people with mild to moderate illness take it within days of first showing symptoms.
The drug, called Paxlovid, is taken twice a day for five days in combination with a second drug called ritonavir, a common antiviral medicine.
Results from a study of more than 2,200 people at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 showed that the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89%, compared with placebo, when taken within three days of at the first symptoms of the disease. When taken for 5 days, the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 88%.
Pfizer chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten told NPR: “If you treated 100,000 of these patients with Paxlovid, you would avert more than 5,500 hospitalizations and save about 1,100 lives.
Preliminary results from the second study showed a 70% reduction in risk of hospitalization among hundreds of people at lower risk of severe illness.
The company also looked at the drug’s effect on suppressing the amount of virus in the body, known as viral load, and found that it resulted in a 10-fold reduction compared to a placebo. Reducing the viral load can reduce people’s chances of infection.
Pfizer said reactions to the drug and placebo were similar and most were mild.
Pfizer said it has submitted the results to the Food and Drug Administration. If the agency allows the supply of the drug, the US government has a contract with Pfizer to buy 10 million courses for $ 5.3 billion.
