Pfizer brags about 'stunning' results that show its at-home Covid pill STILL beats Omicron and cuts risk of dying/hospitalization by up to 89%
Pfizer's breakthrough at-home Covid pill should still work against Omicron, the drug giant insisted today.
Laboratory tests suggested the twice-a-day antiviral, called Paxlovid, will still offer a ‘robust’ response against the variant.
The company also released final trial data for its medication, saying it cuts the risk of vulnerable adults being hospitalised or dying by up to 90 per cent.
The results – taken from a study of 2,200 at-risk adults – are in line with Pfizer’s initial findings, which saw doctors call it a potential ‘game-changer’ in the fight against Covid.
The maker of a rival antiviral pill molnupiravir, the only at-home pill approved by the UK's medicines regulator, was forced to revise down the efficacy rate for its drug, prompting fears early Pfizer results were also overly optimistic.
Molnupiravir, made by US-based Merck and Ridgeback, will only be given to older and at-risk people within 48 hours of catching the virus as part of a pilot that is expected to launch by the end of the year.
Separate results showed Pfizer's Paxlovid also worked on healthy unvaccinated adults, slashing their odds of severe illness by 70 per cent if taken within a few days of testing positive.
Pfizer's chief executive Dr Albert Bourla said the emergence of Omicron has ‘exacerbated the need for accessible treatment options for those who contract the virus’.
He added that the pill, which the UK has bought 250,000 doses of, could be a ‘critical tool to help quell the pandemic’.
Meanwhile, Mikael Dolsten, the company's chief scientific officer, said the results were 'stunning'.
Pfizer's drug won't be supplied to Britain until the start of next year, pending approval.
It comes as the daily Covid figures show around 50,000 Britons are testing positive per day, but experts estimate as many as 200,000 became infected with the mutant strain.
The UK Health Security Agency confirmed 4,713 Omicron infections across the UK as of yesterday. At least 10 patients have been hospitalised and one has died.
Pfizer said that its Covid pill, called Paxlovid (pictured), is up to 89 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths when taken within the first few days of Covid symptoms
Paxlovid is a protease inhibitor, which works by inhibiting an enzyme that the coronavirus uses to make copies of itself inside human cells.
Protease inhibitors have been effective at treating other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C virus, both on their own and in combination with other antivirals, the company said.
If approved, it would be given to patients at the first sign of Covid infection with the aim of reducing the risk of serious illness.
Pfizer trial of Paxlovid enrolled 2,246 at-risk adults by November 4, half of whom were given the pill within five days of their first Covid symptoms as part of phase two and three trials, while the remaining group received a placebo pill.
More than 40 per cent of participants were based in the US, while the rest were in Europe, Africa and Asia.
They found that the drug, which is taken orally every 12 hours for five days, ‘significantly reduced’ the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 per cent when taken within three days of symptoms, compared to the placebo group.
And the drug still cut the risk of being hospitalised or dying by 88 per cent when it was taken five days after symptom onset.
Pfizer said five patients who took Paxlovid within the three-day window were hospitalised, compared to 44 among the placebo group. And no deaths were recorded among those who took its drug in this timeframe, compared to nine fatalities in the other group.
Meanwhile, there were eight hospitalisations and no deaths among those who took the drug five days after their first Covid symptoms, compared to six hospitalisations and 12 deaths among the placebo group.
And the drug was the most effective among older groups, slashing the risk of hospitalisation or death by 94 per cent among the over-65s.
Pfizer also trialled the drug on 673 healthy unvaccinated adults, as well as vaccinated adults who had one or more risk factors, with the aim of alleviating all Covid symptoms for four days.
The pill did not prevent participants from feeling unwell, but the chance of being hospitalised from the virus was 70 per cent lower among the group and no deaths were recorded.
Paxlovid also slashed the viral load — the amount of virus detected in an infected individual’s nose or throat swab — 10-fold compared to the amount of virus detected in those who didn’t take the drug.
And laboratory tests suggest the pill is expected to work against Omicron, because it doesn't target the virus's spike protein, which contains most of the new variant's mutations.
Dr Bourla, Pfizer’s chair and chief executive officer, said the results provide further evidence that its pill ‘could have a meaningful impact on the lives of many’ if it is approved in the fight against the virus.
Emerging variants of concern, such as Omicron, have ‘exacerbated the need for accessible treatment options for those who contract the virus’ and Pfizer is confident the pill could be a ‘critical tool to help quell the pandemic’, he said.
Dr Bourla added: ‘The data further supports the efficacy of Paxlovid in reducing hospitalisation and death and show a substantial decrease in viral load.
‘This underscores the treatment candidate’s potential to save the lives of patients around the world.’
The company said it shared its data with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of a rolling submission for emergency authorisation.
The FDA is expected to soon rule on whether to authorise Pfize's pill and a competing pill from Merck, which was submitted to regulators several weeks earlier and reduced hospitalisations and deaths by 30 per cent among at-risk adults.
If granted, the pills would be the first Covid treatments that Americans could pickup at a pharmacy and take at home.
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