Pfizer allows 95 nations to make its COVID-19 pill, 53% of world's population likely to benefit
US drug manufacturing company Pfizer has struck a deal to allow its experimental COVID-19 treatment pill Paxlovid to be made and sold in 95 developing nations. This initiative could make the treatment available to 53% of the world's population. The Pfizer pill reportedly lessens the risk of severe disease in vulnerable adults.
The deal grants license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool which would let generic drug companies produce the Paxlovid pill for use in 95 countries. However, this deal excludes several countries including Brazil that saw a severe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the countries included are African or Asian.
Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in lower-income countries and said it would waive royalties in all nations included in the agreement. This is a step in the positive direction as World Health Organisation designated the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency.
However, Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies have pushed back against calls to lift patents on their COVID-19 vaccines.
In early November, Pfizer claimed that clinical trials suggest COVID-19 pill Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89% in non-hospitalised high-risk adults with COVID-19 within three days of symptom onset. The Pfizer drug is to be taken with the HIV medicine Ritonavir.
In October, another drugmaker, Merck, announced a similar deal with the Medicines Patent Pool to allow manufacturers to produce its own COVID-19 pill Molnupiravir.
Source : DNA India
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