Pfizer to seek EU authorisation of its COVID pill on Friday
By Team Newsable | First Published Nov 19, 2021, 6:26 PM ISTEarlier, Pfizer said that its pill cuts by 89% the chance of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of severe disease.
Pfizer plans to apply for a European authorisation of its experimental antiviral pill to treat Covid-19 on Friday, German weekly Wirtschaftswoche said, citing sources close to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the company, Reuters reported.
The paper also said that acting German health minister Jens Spahn plans to buy Pfizer's medicine. “The health ministry is in contact with Pfizer regarding a possible procurement of the antiviral drug Paxlovid,” Wirtschaftswoche quoted a ministry's spokesperson as saying.
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Earlier, Pfizer said that its pill cuts by 89% the chance of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of severe disease. The drug will be used in combination with ritonavir, an HIV drug that is already available generically.
Also read: US CDC issues ‘level one’ health advisory for Americans coming to India
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, in a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer announced a deal on Tuesday that it will allow its Covid-19 treatment antiviral pill to 95 low- and middle-income countries. This means that it will allow generic manufacturers to make and sell its experimental antiviral Covid-19 pill inexpensively in 95 poorer nations. The deal was signed with a UN-backed group through a licensing agreement with international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
The agreement follows a similar arrangement negotiated by Merck last month, and together the deals have the potential to vastly expand global production of two simple antiviral pills that could alter the course of the pandemic by preventing severe illness from the coronavirus.
Under the agreement, Pfizer will grant a royalty-free license for the pill to the MPP, in a deal that will allow manufacturers to take out a sublicense. They will receive Pfizer’s formula for the drug, and be able to sell it for use in 95 developing countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, once regulators authorize the drug in those places.
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