PfizerAn antiviral pill developed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer reduced the risk of death and hospitalization in people recently diagnosed with Covid-19 by 89% compared to a placebo, according to a study with 1,210 participants. The results were presented by the company in November and have not yet been published in a scientific journal. “These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or authorized 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,” said Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. The company plans to distribute the drug, called Paxlovid, using a “tiered pricing approach” based on each country’s income level. In October, Merck and Ridgeback announced that their antiviral, molnupiravir, reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 50%. The UK gave conditional approval for the use of molnupirvir in November (StatNews, November 5).
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