GERMANY TO BUY 1 MILLION DOSES OF ANTI-COVID PILL PAXLOVID

Tue 28 December 2021:

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told the German dpa news agency on Tuesday that Germany will purchase a million packages of Pfizer’s Paxlovid antiviral medicine against COVID-19, with the first batches coming in January.

“It is an extremely promising medication, as timely taking of the medicine significantly reduces the probability of a grave course of the disease,” the minister said.

COVID-19 is becoming a “less and less frightening disease” as a result of a combination of vaccine and treatment, according to Lauterbach, who noted that Germany collaborates with all manufacturers of these drugs.

In clinical trials the pill had shown nearly 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients, according to Pfizer.

“Together with the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, I initiated the procedure of emergency approval of the medicine in Germany, so that Paxlovid could be used right after purchase,” Lauterbach said.

Lauterbach said the drug gives doctors a new method to fight the virus.

“Slowly, through a combination of increasingly effective vaccines and treatment options, COVID is becoming a disease that will lose its terror,” he said.

Paxlovid is designed for people who are at high risk of hospitalization or death and have a mild or moderate course of the disease. According to Pfizer, the pills reduce the likelihood of COVID-related hospitalization by at least 88 percent in high-risk groups.

To date, more than 70% of Germans have been fully immunized against COVID-19.

Germany announced the first death caused by the Omicron coronavirus strain on Thursday. Previously, Lauterbach stated that the country will receive BioNTech vaccines modified to Omicron in the first quarter of 2022.

The EU regulator, the EMA, is slated to decide on approvals for the Merck and Pfizer pills in early 2022. However, in November it issued advice on using Merck’s pill for adults ahead of providing any wider recommendation. And earlier this month, the EMA said that EU member states could use Pfizer’s antiviral drug early after diagnosis of an infection despite a full review not being completed.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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