Pfizer Inc.
said on Tuesday it would enable generic producers to supply experimental antivirus pills to 95 low and middle income countries through a licensing agreement with the Pool Pool (MPP) international public health group.
Voluntary licensing agreements between Pfizer and MPP will enable the United Nations supported group to provide sub-licenses to qualified generic drug producers to create the PF-07321332 version itself.
Pfizer will sell pills produced under the name of the Paxlovid brand.
Pfizer, which also makes one of the most widely used Covid-19 vaccines, has said the pill cuts the chance of inpatient or death for adults with the risk of severe disease by 89% in its clinical trial.
This drug will be used in combination with Ritonavir, HIV drugs that are already available in general.
Pfizer license agreement follows similar settings with Merck & Co.
rivals for generic manufacturing of Covid-19 treatment.
The agreement is an unusual arrangement that recognizes a terrible need for effective care and pressure medication makers below to make their life-efficient drugs accessible at a very low cost.
“We are very happy to have other weapons in our arms warehouse to protect people from damage to Covid-19,” Charles Gore, executive director of the Pool Patent Medicine, said in an interview.
Gore said he hoped the generic version of the Pfizer medicine would be available in a few months.
95 countries in the license agreement cover around 53% of the world’s population and cover all middle and lower income countries and lower middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
They also included countries that have switched from the upward middle upward status in the past five years, said Pfizer and MPP.
“We believe oral antivirus care can play an important role in reducing the severity of Covid-19 infection …
We have to work to ensure that everyone – regardless of where they live or their circumstances – have access to this breakthrough,” Executive Pfizer Head Albert Bourla said in a statement.
Pfizer will ignore sales royalties in low-income countries.
It will also free them in other countries covered by the agreement during Covid-19 remain classified as an emergency of public health which is an international concern by the World Health Organization.
The Pfizer drug version will be high in demand.
The company has said that expects to produce 180,000 maintenance courses at the end of next month and at least 50 million courses at the end of 2022.
Even so, the drug maker can be stretched trying to supply 47% of the world population.
Pfizer executives said last week the market for this drug might reach 150 million people and that many countries might also be interested in buying doses for their strategic backup.
Pfizer said it would sell the supply it produced using a tiered price approach based on the income level of each country.
In the United States, it expects its care prices close to where Merck has given the price of drugs around $ 700 courses.
Merck has a license agreement for Pill Covid-19, Molnupiravir, in more than 100 countries.
However, some international health officials say even that is not enough for drugs to reach many people in large and medium-sized large-income countries.