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On Wednesday, Dec. 22, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment pill, which has been recommended for people at high risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19.
The pill could be available as soon as this weekend, according to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
According to Pfizer, the drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though the pharma company cautioned that the initial supply will be very limited.
Authorization from the FDA comes as the country continues to contend with a winter spike of new infections, hospitalizations, and the more-easily transmissible Omicron variant, which has become the dominant strain in the US.
It will be available for adults and children 12 and older with a positive COVID-19 test and early symptoms who face the highest risks of hospitalization.
According to the FDA, Paxlovid is 89 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients.
The US initially purchased 10 million courses of Pfizer’s treatment, Paxlovid as part of a $5 billion deal.
President Joe Biden said in the fall that his administration will work to ensure that the treatments are free and accessible, with delivery beginning by the New Year.
“Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for COVID-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally — a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic,” Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
“This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.”
Moving forward, a second antiviral pill from Merck is also expected to soon be authorized by the FDA. Both pills are expected to be effective against omicron because they don’t target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside.
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