Fri 28 January 2022:
On Thursday, the European Union’s health regulator approved the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 anti-viral pill.
In a statement, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had “recommended authorising Paxlovid for treating COVID-19 in adults who… are at increased risk of the disease becoming severe.”
Paxlovid has only been approved for people over the age of 12 in a few countries, including the United States, Canada, and Israel.
According to the news agency AFP, the European Union has allowed member states to use it as an emergency measure against Omicron before formal approval.
The drug, which comes in two forms, is the first COVID-19 therapy that can be taken at home.
It is typically prescribed to high-risk patients to keep them from becoming so ill that they need to be hospitalized.
It is administered twice daily for five days in conjunction with ritonavir, a generic antiviral.
Unlike vaccines, it does not target the ever-evolving spike protein which the coronavirus uses to invade cells.
The company in its preliminary lab studies concluded that the pill, in theory, is more variant-proof than the vaccines.
Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% when taken within three days of the onset of illness in a Pfizer study involving over 2,200 people at high risk of developing serious COVID-19, compared to a placebo, when taken within three days of the onset of illness.
According to the company’s study, when taken within five days, the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 88%.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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