The company’s chief executive said the results were ‘a real game-changer’ in the world’s efforts to stop the devastation of the pandemic.
Pfizer’s experimental antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89% when given within three days after the symptoms appear, the pharmaceutical company announced on Friday. The drug is designed to block an enzyme that the coronavirus needs to replicate. In a statement, Pfizer said that an independent board of experts monitoring its late-stage clinical trial recommended that the study should be stopped because of the drug’s “overwhelming efficacy”. The company said it will submit the data for the pill, which will be sold under the brand name paxlovid, to the United States Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible.
