Public Health

Biden’s government to buy 10 million courses of the Pfizer Covid treatment pill

Paxlovid, a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pill made by Pfizer, is made in Ascoli, Italy in this undated handout photo by Reuters on November 16, 2021.

Pfizer | Handout | via Reuters

President Joe Biden said Thursday the US had bought 10 million courses of Pfizer’s Covid treatment pill, an oral antiviral drug that was very effective in preventing hospitalization in high-risk adults in a clinical trial.

The Paxlovid pill could fundamentally change the fight against the virus and provide doctors with a drug that patients can take home after an infection. Highly effective home treatment could help reduce the stress hospitals were exposed to during the pandemic, especially during the recent wave of Delta infections.

“My administration is now making the necessary preparations to ensure these treatments are easily available and free,” Biden said in a statement. “This is positive news. This treatment could prove to be another important tool in our arsenal that will accelerate our way out of the pandemic.”

Biden said shipments of the pills will start late this year and continue through 2022.

Pfizer filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration for an emergency permit for the pill on Tuesday. Paxlovid is taken in combination with a widely used HIV drug, ritonavir.

In a clinical study of adults aged 18 and over who were more prone to severe Covid infection, Pfizer showed Paxlovid to be 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations and death when taken within three days of symptoms appearing. Paxlovid is taken in combination with a widely used HIV drug, ritonavir.

Paxlovid blocks the activity of an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate. The HIV drug ritonavir slows the patient’s metabolism so that the drug can stay in the body in higher concentrations longer to fight the virus.

Doctors currently have few options to treat Covid patients. Gilead’s antiviral drug, Remdesivir, is mainly used to treat patients who are already in the hospital, while monoclonal antibody treatments are expensive.

While Paxlovid shows promise, supplies are likely to be scarce. Pfizer has announced that it will manufacture 180,000 courses next month and ramp production to 50 million courses by the end of 2022.

Pfizer agreed this week to allow generic drug companies to manufacture the pill and ship it to 95 low and middle income countries. The pharmaceutical company waives license fees for low-income countries and will do the same for all other nations covered by the agreement as long as the World Health Organization classifies Covid as an international health emergency.

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