Pfizer Has indicated that it will allow generic drug manufacturers to supply their experimental antiviral Covid pills to 95 low- and middle-income countries through licensing agreements with international public health organizations Pharmaceutical Patent Pool (MPP).
Reuters reported that the voluntary licensing agreement between Pfizer and MPP will allow the United Nations-backed group to grant sublicenses to qualified generic manufacturers to manufacture their own version of PF-07321332.Pfizer will market its pills under its brand name Parkslowed.
Pfizer is also the manufacturer of one of the most widely used Covid vaccines. The company said that the pill in its clinical trials reduced the chance of hospitalization or death of adults at risk of serious illness by 89%.The drug will interact with Ritonavir, An HIV drug that can be used in general.
Pfizer’s licensing deal follows similar arrangements with competitors Merck Universal manufacturing for its Covid treatment. These transactions are unusual arrangements, acknowledging the urgent need for effective treatments and the pressure on drugmakers to provide life-saving drugs at very low cost.
“We are very happy to have another weapon in our arsenal to protect people from Covid-19,” Charles GoreThe executive director of MPP said in an interview.
Gore said that he hopes that a generic version of Pfizer’s drug will be on the market within a few months.
The 95 countries in the license agreement cover approximately 53% of the world’s population, including all low-income and low-middle-income countries as well as some upper-middle-income countries Sub-Saharan Africa.
Pfizer and MPP stated that they also include countries that have transitioned from low-middle-income status to upper-middle-income status in the past five years.
“We believe that oral antiviral treatment can play a vital role in reducing the severity of Covid-19 infection… We must work hard to ensure that all people-no matter where they live or the environment they are in-have access to these Breakthrough,” Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Burla Said in a statement.
Pfizer will waive royalties for sales in low-income countries. As long as Covid remains listed as a public health emergency of international concern, it will also exempt these restrictions in other countries covered by the agreement. world healthy organization.
Pfizer’s drug is in great demand. The company has stated that it expects to produce 180,000 treatment courses by the end of next month and at least 50 million treatment courses by the end of 2022.
Even so, the drugmaker may be struggling to supply 47% of the world’s population. A Pfizer executive said last week that the drug’s market may reach 150 million people, and many countries may also be interested in purchasing doses for its strategic reserves.
Pfizer said it will use a tiered pricing method to sell the supply of its production based on the income level of each country.inside America, It expects its treatment pricing to be close to Merck’s pricing of approximately US$700 per course of treatment for its drugs.
Merck has a license agreement for Covid pills, Mupiravir, In more than 100 countries. Despite this, some international health officials said that even so, it is still not enough for the drug to reach many people in low- and middle-income countries in large numbers.
