According to people familiar with the matter, the US Food and Drug Administration is set to authorize a pair of tablets from Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. as soon as this week to treat COVID-19 — against the pandemic. A milestone in the fight that will soon expand treatment for the sick.
According to three people, the announcement can be made on Wednesday. He asked the authority not to be identified before and warned that the plan could change.
Pfizer’s Pill, Paxlovid, and Merck’s Molnupiravir are intended for high-risk people who test positive for COVID. The treatment, in which patients take a series of pills at home for several days, could ease the burden on hospitals with infections that increase during the winter in the US
Spokesmen for the White House and FDA declined to comment.
Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said, “This is the biggest thing to happen in a pandemic after vaccines. The timing of the announcement, so late, is unusual for the FDA and reflects the urgency behind the drugs,” he said.
The US government ordered 10 million courses of the Pfizer pill and about 3 million courses of Merck, which is not as effective as clinical studies indicate, and may have risks.
In a clinical trial, the Pfizer pill showed an 89% reduction in hospitalization for patients who received the drug within three days of developing symptoms, compared to patients who received a placebo . None of the patients treated with the drug died.
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