Another ray of hope as the US-based pharmaceutical major Pfizer is all gearing up to launch its Covid-19 oral antiviral pill by the end of this year.
Covid-19 Oral Pill Launch
The Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, Albert Bourla said that the company’s Covid-19 oral antiviral pill is in the early-stage trials and could be ready by the end of the year.
Basically, Pfizer is the first authorized Covid-19 vaccine in the US with German drugmaker BioNTech, who has begun an early-stage clinical trial for testing a new antiviral therapy for Covid-19 in March.
Moving ahead, this drug belongs to a class of medicines called protease inhibitors which furth works by inhibiting an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate in human cells.
According to Bourla, “If clinical trials go well and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves it, the drug could be distributed across the US by the end of the year,”.
Further, the report mentioned that Protease inhibitors are used to treat other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C.
Emergency Use Authorisation For Kids
Prior to this, it has asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) last month.
The pharmaceutical giant has asked to include children ages 12 to 15 in its Covid-19 vaccine.
Interestingly, his request came just days after Pfizer released data demonstrating its vaccine was 100 percent effective and well-tolerated by the younger group.
Pfizer Vaccine For Children
Apart from the oral pills, Pfizer is also planning on its vaccine for 6-month to 11-year-old children.
A single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines against Covid may boost immunity against the Covid-19 variants, according to a recent study, published in the journal Science.
It is noteworthy here that this will be applicable to the only people who were previously infected with the deadly virus.
The immune response to variants of concern may be insufficient for the people, who have not previously been infected and have so far only received one dose of vaccine, as per the study.
It is possible that the new drug could be prescribed “at the first sign of infection, without requiring that patients are hospitalized or in critical care” said Mikael Dolsten, the M.D., chief scientific officer and president, worldwide research, development, and medical of Pfizer.