【Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network】According to The Star, just two years shy of the first reported outbreak of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, comes the good news that two reportedly effective oral drugs are likely to be available soon to treat this infectious disease.
The latest news that American pharmaceutical company Pfizer has successfully developed an antiviral pill against Covid-19 is indeed exciting and should reduce global fear of the pandemic.
Compared to current hospital-based treatments, a course of pills for Covid-19 means that the disease can be managed at home. (Photo / Retrieved from the Pixabay)
At the time of writing, the official Covid-19 count is over 250 million cases and five million deaths worldwide.
According to a press release by Pfizer, its experimental pill, currently called PF-07321332, has been shown to reduce hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of severe disease by 89%.
The clinical trial using this drug was stopped prematurely on the recommendation of an independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial because the interim results showed overwhelming efficacy and clear benefit.
The company plans to submit the findings to US regulatory authorities for emergency authorisation before Nov 25 (2021).
In the clinical trial for this drug, which involved 1,219 elderly adults who were unvaccinated or had an underlying health condition that placed them at high risk of serious illness from Covid-19, only 0.8% of people on a five-day treatment regime became sick and ended up in hospital, and no one died.
In the placebo group, 7% of people ended up in hospital or died within five days of their symptoms appearing.
Pfizer did not provide details on side effects, but stated that the problems were mild and similar in the two groups at about 20%.
The Star says, the result of the clinical trial, which has yet to be published, is highly significant statistically and has important global implications as it has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate nine out of 10 hospitalisations.
Already approved
News of Pfizer’s pill comes soon after the approval of another American pharmaceutical company Merck’s antiviral drug, molnupiravir, which has already been approved for use in the United Kingdom.
Malaysia has also placed an order for 150,000 courses of molnupiravir at the reported cost of RM420 million.
Molnupiravir is an antiviral medication working at the RNA (ribonucleic acid) polymerase gene level to prevent virus replication by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus.
On the other hand, PF-07321332, which is a protease inhibitor, works to block a crucial enzyme that the SARS-CoV-2 virus needs in order to replicate.
Both drugs are taken orally, twice a day for five days.
Molnupiravir showed a 50% reduction in hospitalisation or death in a trial involving 385 patients and 377 controls who got a placebo.
This trial was also stopped early because the results were so encouraging, showing that it can work against the most common SARS-CoV-2 viral variants, including Delta and Gamma.
