phosphorusfizer has high hopes. In addition to vaccines, drugs also play an important role in combating vaccines. coronavirus Able to play. The American pharmaceutical company reported on Friday the good research results of its therapeutic agent Paxlovid. The drug reduced the risk of hospitalization or fatal disease in patients with early symptoms after contracting the virus by 89%.
This is even better than the data of Molnupiravir, a drug developed by Pfizer’s competitor Merck, which was also rated as encouraging. Merck & Co. talked about a 50% reduction in risk, although this is not necessarily directly related Pfizer The numbers are comparable. Pfizer’s stock price rose about 11% on Friday.
Compliments from Karliczek
Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer Albert Burla Call the data a “game changer”. He told CNBC TV: “I think this drug will save millions of lives.” Unlike the vaccine sold by Pfizer and BioNTech, a biotech company based in Mainz and developed in a German laboratory, Paxlovid is an internal product. . As research data shows that the drug has “overwhelming efficacy”, Pfizer does not want to include more patients in the study, and will apply to the US FDA for so-called emergency approval “as soon as possible.” According to CEO Bourla, this could happen in November.
If the drug fulfills its promise, Pfizer may get another corona product with billions of dollars in sales. Just a few days ago, the company raised its vaccine forecast, and now forecasts this year’s sales of 36 billion U.S. dollars, higher than the previous 33.5 billion U.S. dollars. Merck announced that by the end of next year, molnupiravir sales will reach 7 billion U.S. dollars.The drug is the first market to be approved in the UK this week, applying to the US authorities Food and Drug Administration It’s also posing.
The German Minister of Management Research Anja Karliczek (CDU) welcomed the latest success report in the field of anti-coronavirus drugs. In addition to vaccination, safe and effective treatment methods are essential to respond to the pandemic, “especially when the number of infected people increases sharply, especially when the number of infected people increases sharply,” she told the German News Agency, adding Said: “Pfizer’s report on the approval application and Merck’s successful approval of its Covid-19 drug is therefore good news for all of us.”
So far, the contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to the fight against the pandemic has been mainly in vaccines. But treatment is also an important area, especially because many people have not yet been vaccinated, and some vaccinated people will be infected. Compared with the antibody drugs that have been frequently administered to patients so far, mainly intravenous injections, the pills of Merck and Pfizer have the advantages of being easy to take at home and cheap. Pfizer’s agents are so-called protease inhibitors. It blocks the activity of enzymes that the coronavirus needs to replicate.
