Pfizer's experimental Covid pill reduces hospitalisations and deaths, company claims
Pfizer antiviral pills Photograph:( Reuters )
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Pfizer has revealed that the interim analysis before the end of the trial has shown that there is an 89 per cent decline in risk of hospitalisations and Covid deaths
Pfizer has revealed that the interim analysis before the end of the trial has shown that there is an 89 per cent decline in risk of hospitalisations and Covid deaths
Pfizer has claimed that their experimental pill against the deadly coronavirus has the capacity to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and deaths in high-risk patients.
The pharmaceutical company has revealed that the interim analysis before the end of the trial has shown that there is an 89 per cent decline in risk of hospitalisations and Covid deaths. However, the data has not been peer reviewed yet.
Pfizer has been testing this pill in high-risk adult Covid patients. In these trials, some of the volunteers have been given the pill combination while others have been given a placebo, within three to five days of the start of their symptoms.
As per the collected data, only 0.8 per cent of volunteers (three out of 389) who were given the pill combination within three days of symptoms were hospitalised. The data showed a stark contrast with the volunteers who were given a placebo. Nearly seven per cent of volunteers had to be hospitalised and eventually passed away from the disease. However, none of the volunteers who were given the pill succumbed to the virus.
"Similar reductions in COVID-19-related hospitalization or death were observed in patients treated within five days of symptom onset; 1% of patients who received PF-07321332 (with) ritonavir were hospitalized through Day 28 following randomization (6/607 hospitalized, with no deaths), compared to 6.7% of patients who received a placebo," the company said.
It has also been revealed that 19 per cent of volunteers who were given the pill suffered some reactions, which were missing in the patients who got a placebo. However, it was not made clear what these reactions were or what was the intensity.
"These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients' lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations," Albert Bourla, chairman CEO of Pfizer, said in a statement.
With the experimental name PF-07321332, this pill is designed to stop the virus from multiplying and is supposed to slow the breakdown in the body when given with ritonavir.
