Pfizer announced that its new COVID-19 pill reduces hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients by 89%, according to Japan Times.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer issued the official statement on Friday, saying that the results of Paxlovid are amazing. The drug binds to an enzyme called a protease to stop the virus from replicating itself. Some drugs for HIV work in a similar way.
Last month, Merck & Co. and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP submitted their experimental pill to regulators after a study showed it slashed the risk of getting seriously ill or dying by half in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
Pfizer’s pill could be taken at home at the first sign of symptoms is a crucial tool for taming the coronavirus crisis globally, so long as it’s widely available. According to Pfizer, the submissions to other regulatory agencies will occur shortly after the US filing.
In the trial of 1,219 unvaccinated adults, five days of treatment with its drug dramatically reduced the rate of hospitalization when it was started within either three days or five days of symptom onset, the company said.
Overall, just 0.8% of people who started treatment within three days of getting sick ended up in the hospital and no one died, while 7% of people who got a placebo in that window were later hospitalized or died. Similar results were found when the drug was started within five days of symptom onset. The result, which hasn’t been published in a medical journal, was highly statistically significant, Pfizer claims.
