Tue 16 November 2021:
Pfizer and the Medicines Patent Tool (MPP), a UN-backed group that provides life-saving pharmaceuticals to developing countries, signed an agreement on Tuesday that will allow other manufacturers to make Pfizer’s experimental COVID-19 pill.
“Pfizer Inc. and the MPP … announced the signing of a voluntary license agreement for Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment candidate PF-07321332, which is administered in combination with low dose ritonavir (PF-07321332; ritonavir),” the company said in a statement. “The agreement will enable MPP to facilitate additional production and distribution of the investigational antiviral, pending regulatory authorization or approval, by granting sub-licenses to qualified generic medicine manufacturers, with the goal of facilitating greater access to the global population.”
According to the announcement, the agreement authorizes qualified producers globally to supply PF-07321332 in combination with ritonavir to 95 countries.
This move will assist in reaching more than half of the world’s population, including countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The announcement comes after the MPP struck a similar voluntary license agreement last month with Pfizer’s US rival Merck & Co for its investigational oral antiviral medication molnupiravir.
The agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, will help enable widespread access to molnupiravir in 105 low- and middle-income countries.
MPP executive director Charles Gore emphasized the significance of this license, which, if approved, will allow low- and middle-income countries to get a key pandemic treatment.
“PF-07321332 is to be taken together with ritonavir, an HIV medicine we know well, as we have had a license on it for many years, and we will be working with generic companies to ensure there is enough supply for both COVID-19 and HIV,” Gore said.
Pfizer stated earlier this month that PF-07321332 in combination with ritonavir dramatically reduces the risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.
Interim data from ongoing trials demonstrated an 89 percent reduction in the risk of Covid-19-related hospitalisation or death compared to a placebo, in non-hospitalised high-risk adults with Covid-19 within three days of symptom onset, said Pfizer.
Similar results were seen within five days of symptom onset, it added
The pill could potentially help patients avoid severe illness, which can lead to hospitalisation and death, Pfizer said.
“We believe oral antiviral treatments can play a vital role in reducing the severity of Covid-19 infections, decreasing the strain on our healthcare systems and saving lives,” said Pfizer chairman and chief executive Albert Bourla.
Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) estimated that the Pfizer treatment course would cost roughly $700, in line with molnupiravir.
.(with agencies)
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