COVID-19: Pfizer claims its antiviral pill shows efficacy against Omicron variant

The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc has announced that its antiviral COVID-19 pill showed around 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalisations and deaths in high-risk patients when treated within five days of symptoms onset. The data has further suggested that the medicine retains its effectiveness against the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19. Pfizer has shown the effectiveness of the oral treatment against COVID-19 in the data released from multiple studies. 

Pfizer in the press release has stated that multiple studies showed nirmatrelvir, the main component of its Paxlovid pill has retained efficacy against the Omicron variant of coronavirus. The pharmaceutical company further stated that the nirmatrelvir, the active main protease inhibitor of the Paxlovid pill, “has the potential to maintain plasma concentrations many-fold times higher than the amount required to prevent Omicron from replicating in cells.” Kris White, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai, stated that the early data has indicated that the oral treatment retains robust activity against Omicron and other variants of concern of COVID-19.

Paxlovid reduces the risk of hospitalisation or death

Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research, Development and Medical of Pfizer, in the press release, informed that the company had designed Paxlovid pill in a way that it maintained efficacy against all the variants of COVID-19. Dolsten further added that the Paxlovid pill has reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death by around 90% in comparison to placebo for high-risk COVID-19 patients and insisted that they are "encouraged" by the initial lab findings. He added that the data suggest that oral treatment can be an "important and effective tool" in the battle against COVID-19, including the highly transmissible Omicron variant. 

“We specifically designed PAXLOVID to retain its activity across coronaviruses, as well as current variants of concern with predominantly spike protein mutations," Mikael Dolsten said in the press release.

“These data suggest that our oral COVID-19 therapy can be an important and effective tool in our continued battle against this devastating virus and current variants of concern, including the highly transmissible Omicron. We will continue to monitor the treatment’s activity in real-world settings and believe that these in vitro findings will continue to be validated,” Dolsten added.

US FDA issues EUA for paxlovid

In December, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s paxlovid for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID virus in adults and pediatric patients (12 years and older), who weigh at least 40 kilograms or about 88 pounds. Paxlovid is available by prescription only and should be initiated as soon as possible after a diagnosis of COVID and within five days of symptom onset, according to FDA. Paxlovid is administered as three tablets (two tablets of nirmatrelvir and one tablet of ritonavir) taken together orally twice daily for five days. 

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