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After vaccine success, Pfizer working on breakthrough oral therapy for COVID-19

Pfizer's CEO claims he has been given permission to produce "large quantities" of the oral COVID-19 drug.

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Pfizer, in collaboration with BioNTech, created the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2. Now, the company is hard at work on the next COVID-19 breakthrough, and it's not a vaccine.

What is Pfizer’s upcoming COVID drug?

Protease inhibitors are an antiviral medication class that has shown to be useful in the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. These treatments prevent viruses from reproducing.

In March of this year, Pfizer began an early-stage clinical trial testing the oral protease inhibitor PF-07321332. In its Q2 statement in June, the company had positive results to present from that study.

It claims that in preclinical tests, the medication exhibited strong antiviral effectiveness, inhibiting coronavirus virus reproduction by more than fivefold.

In July, Pfizer announced that the oral protease inhibitor had progressed to phase 2/3 testing. For those who have been in close contact with COVID-19 patient, PF-07321332 will be evaluated in five-day and ten-day treatments.

What it means for COVID-19?

The market potential for Pfizer's protease inhibitor might be in the hundreds of millions of patients, according to the company.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already given Regeneron's REGEN-COV an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as a treatment for hospitalised COVID-19 patients and for post-exposure prevention.

Regeneron's medicine, on the other hand, has a few failings, including potential side effects and safety issues. Regen-COV is extremely costly, requiring more than $2,000 each treatment. It must also be given as an infusion.

So, because it is given orally, Pfizer's PF-07321332 would be far more convenient. The current EUA for post-exposure prophylaxis in the United States only applies to people who have been exposed to COVID-19 and are not completely vaccinated.

Latest Update

Pfizer's next promising COVID-19 medication shouldn't take too long. Pfizer's CEO claims he has been given permission to produce "large quantities" of the oral protease inhibitor.

If all goes well, the company believes it will be able to submit for a US EUA in the fourth quarter of this year.

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