WASHINGTON (WBAP/KLIF News) – Pfizer is touting it’s new experimental COVID-19 pill as a potential game changer in the battle against the pandemic.
The drugmaker said studies show the pill cuts the risk of being hospitalized or death from the virus by 89% if taken within three days of developing symptoms.
It has to be taken twice for five days.
Pfizer released preliminary results Friday of its study of 775 adults. Patients who took the drug along with a widely-used HIV drug called ritonavir had an 89% reduction in their combined rate of hospitalization or death in comparison with those who took a placebo.
Fewer than 1% of patients taking the drug needed to be hospitalized and no one died. In comparison group, 7% were hospitalized and there were seven deaths.
Click here for more information about the study.
The company said it will ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and international regulators to authorize its pill.
“Today’s news is a real game-changer in the global efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic. These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or authorized by regulator authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and eliminating up to nine out of ten hospitalizations,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officers, Pfizer. “Given the continued global impact of COVID-19, we have remained laser-focused on the science and fulfilling our responsibility to help healthcare systems and institutions around the world while ensuring equitable and broad access to people everywhere.”
Pfizer’s competitor Merck is currently under FDA review and has been cleared by regulators in the United Kingdom.
Current therapies in the U.S. require an IV or injection.
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