Coronavirus: US agreement for a pre-order of 5.29 billion dollars for Pfizer’s antiviral candidate

BANGALORE (Reuters) – Pfizer announced in a statement Thursday that it has signed a $ 5.29 billion (about 4.6 billion euros) contract with the United States for the supply of 10 million doses of its antiviral treatment by oral route of COVID-19, under review by US health authorities.

Subject to obtaining a marketing authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which Pfizer seized on Tuesday for an emergency authorization request, the agreement provides that the laboratory will provide 10 million doses of Paxlovid (PF-07321332) over a period from the end of this year to next year.

Administered within three days of symptom onset, Paxlovid reduces the risk of hospitalization by nearly 90% in infected patients who are particularly susceptible to developing a severe form of COVID-19, by preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV coronavirus -2 in the body.

Each dose corresponds to a complete treatment regimen, 300 mg (or two tablets) twice a day for five days).

The company specifies that this treatment must be supplemented by the concomitant intake of a low dose of ritonavir, an antiretroviral used for a long time in the management of HIV-AIDS, which blocks the same viral enzymes and therefore makes it possible to accentuate the effectiveness of Paxlovid.

Beyond the United States, Pfizer specifies that it will continue to submit requests for authorization to various national health authorities around the world and that it has already started discussions on pre-order agreements with several country.

“We look forward to continuing discussions with governments around the world to help enable widespread access” to this oral treatment, which strengthens the arsenal to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, says Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, quoted in the press release.

Another oral treatment for COVID-19, Lagevrio (molnupiravir) developed by MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme) was cleared earlier this month by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the British health agency.

(Report Manas Mishra in Bengalore, with the contribution of Myriam Rivet in Paris for the French version, edited by Sophie Louet)