Pharmaceutical Pfizer said its COVID-19 pill, used in combination with a widely used HIV drug, reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% in high-risk adults who have been exposed to the virus.
Pfizer said it plans to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration “as soon as possible,” the AP reported .
The lab reported that its data on the drug is based on an intermediate-to-late-stage study of 1,219 adults who had at least one underlying medical condition and one lab-confirmed infection over a five-day period.
Pfizer said there were six hospitalizations and zero deaths out of the 607 trial participants who received the pill in combination with the HIV drug within five days of the onset of symptoms.
That compares with 41 hospitalizations and 10 deaths out of the 612 people who received a placebo.
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said: “These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections. and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations ”.
The oral drug made by Pfizer could be available this year if it gets approval , company sources said Tuesday.
It is the second antiviral pill after Merck’s that shows great efficacy in treating the coronavirus.
