Image of Paxlovid covid-19 pills from Pfizer.PFIZER (Reuters)
The United States has approved this Wednesday the use of Pfizer's pill against the coronavirus.
The health authorities trust that this new drug, which reduces hospitalizations in seriously ill patients by 90%, will contribute to curbing the rapid spread of the omicron variant, which is already the most widespread in the country, present in 73% of cases, according to data provided late Monday by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The drug, called Paxlovid, promises a faster and cheaper way to fight COVID-19, although supplies are expected to be extremely limited at first. The pharmaceutical company Merck is in the last stages of manufacturing a similar pill, called Molnupiravir.
The United States Medicines Agency (FDA) has authorized its use orally for patients over 12 years of age who have a positive test for coronavirus, as well as symptoms of the disease, and belong to one of the groups with high risk of being admitted. Data from the Pfizer clinical trial, a study of about 2,250 unvaccinated people, all with at least one risk factor, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, shows that the new drug reduces hospitalizations by 90% and deaths in these types of patients. Also, according to those trials, that the drug is effective against the omicron variant.
"Its efficacy is high, the side effects are few and it is also taken orally," Gregory Poland, a physician at the Mayo Clinic, explains in a statement to AP.
"Its effectiveness is astonishing, and the fact that it reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by 90% in high-risk patients."
Since its effectiveness is limited to the first five days, experts worry that a patient will not have enough time to experience the first symptoms, get tested, get a prescription from a doctor and take the pill before the deadline. .
The US government has confirmed the purchase of enough Paxlovid to treat 10 million people.
Tens of thousands of pills are waiting in a warehouse in Memphis, in the center of the country, to be distributed, once authorization is obtained.
Pfizer, for its part, promises to produce 80 million doses globally in 2022, while confirming contracts for their sale with the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries.
Pfizer is a co-producer, together with Biontech, of one of the effective vaccines against coronavirus.