Pfizer execs say a clinical trial of a COVID-19 pill has succeeded beyond their "wildest dreams." The company says the antiviral pill, which it plans to sell under the brand name Paxlovid, cut the risk of hospitalization or death among high-risk patients by 89% when it was taken within three days of the onset of COVID symptoms, the New York Times reports. The company said 0.8% of patients given the drug along with ritonavir, an older antiviral, were hospitalized within four weeks, compared to 7% of those given a placebo, CNN reports. There were seven deaths in the placebo group and none in the group given the drug combination. Trials of a similar drug from Merck found that it reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by around 50%.
Pfizer exec Annaliesa Anderson, who led development of the drug, said it could "have a big impact on helping all our lives go back to normal again and seeing the end of the pandemic," per the Times. The company said that as with the Merck drug, the results were so promising that experts recommended they stop the trial early. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said the drug could be a "game-changer" if it receives approval from the FDA, which it plans to seek as soon as possible. The only antiviral currently approved for COVID treatment, remdesivir, needs to be administered via injection at hospitals or clinics, the AP notes.
Study participants were unvaccinated and were considered at high risk because of health issues including obesity and diabetes. The company has yet to publish the full data from the clinical trial, but Dr. John Sanders, chief of infectious diseases at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, tells NBC that the preliminary information is remarkable. "The availability of an oral antiviral that can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in high risk patients by 89% will have a major impact on how we treat COVID-19," he says. (More coronavirus stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
