Multinational pharmaceutical Pfizer and US biotechnology announced that its experimental antivirus pills to treat Covid-19 can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death at 89 percent in vulnerable adults.
The company shares the initial findings of clinical trials on Friday.
The drug that will be sold under the name of the Paxlovid brand is very effective in preventing severe diseases in vulnerable adults who receive a dose as soon as they begin to show symptoms of infectious diseases during the trial.
This is a combination treatment, consisting of three pills given twice a day.
Antivirus drugs are the second of its kind on the market to show efficacy of Covid.
The new antivirus drug offers more protection compared to developed by other American pharmaceutical companies Merck, who awaited authorization in the US and received approval yesterday in the UK.
Immediately after the results of the efficacy of antivirus drugs was revealed in clinical trials, the pharmaceutical giant stopped the research.
They said that the expert council monitored the trial was very convincing they decided to stop the trial at the initial stage.
The company has not revealed full findings at the trial, but they plan to submit data as soon as possible to the food and administration of US drugs to find authorization of pill use.
In the initial findings, Pfizer analyzes 1,219 patients with the risk of hospitalization or death after people are diagnosed with Covid-19 light to medium and the presence of at least one factor that can cause severe infections, such as obesity or older age.
The research team found that only 0.8 percent of the Pfizer antivirus drug was given within three days after Covid’s symptoms were treated at the hospital while no one died for 28 days after treatment.
They compared data with a level of 7 percent hospitalization for placebo patients where seven people died.
Based on the initial research experiments, the company in his statement said that antivirus needed as early as possible to reduce the risk of complications.
The drug can control the virus from causing large damage before the infection is detained, to the most effective, which is within three days.
“We see that we do have high efficacy, even if it’s five days after a patient is treated …
People might wait a few days before getting a test or something, and this means that we have time to treat people and really give The benefits of public health perspectives, “Annalaesa Anderson, head of the Pfizer program, told Reuters.
Until now the company has not released detailed side effects of the antivirus drug.
They only say that bad effects occur in just 20 percent of cases.
“This data shows that our oral antivirus candidates are approved by regulatory authorities, potentially saving the patient’s life, reducing the severity of Covid-19 infection, and eliminating up to nine out of ten inpatients,” said Chief Executive Pfizer Bourla Albert Bourla in a statement.
Pfizer plans to produce more than 180,000 packs at the end of 2021 and at least 50 million packs at the end of 2022.