Britain became the first country in the world to approve oral intake of drugs on Thursday Coronavirus disease Antiviral pills, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
On Friday, Pfizer, the manufacturer of the COVID-19 vaccine, announced the encouraging results of its experimental pill, claiming that it can reduce hospitalization rates and mortality caused by the virus by nearly 90%.
Public health experts describe the implementation of antiviral drugs as a potential game changer in the fight against the pandemic, citing their effectiveness in preventing serious illness and death and their low production costs.
Pfizer’s new COVID-19 pill can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 90%, the company says
Here is what you need to know about the antiviral COVID-19 pill.
How does it work?
Antiviral drugs have aroused interest among health experts and epidemiologists in how they specifically target parts of the virus’ genetic code.
In the case of Merck’s monelavir, once the drug is ingested, it targets the enzyme that the coronavirus uses to reproduce itself.
When the RNA of the coronavirus starts to replicate in the cell, it will mistakenly pick up the drug and integrate it into the RNA strand.
The drug then inserts errors in the virus’s genetic code-slowing its spread and its ability to take over human cells.
“So basically, if the virus tries to replicate more and more copies of itself, one thing it needs to do is to put the complete viral RNA into the new virus particles that will be shed from the cell, and this drug is basically true. It’s messed up the whole process,” explains Dr. Gerald Evans, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Queen’s University.
“It created a wrong template to be able to make further copies.”
Although Merck’s pill acts as a nucleoside analog in an attempt to introduce errors in the virus’s genetic code, Pfizer’s pill is different. It is an inhibitor designed to block the enzymes required for the reproduction of the coronavirus.
Pfizer said its pills target the parts of the virus that are necessary for virus replication, which basically means that it will not develop resistance to the drug itself.
Both antiviral drugs need to be taken within five days, but the number of pills taken varies from brand to brand.
Pfizer’s antiviral drugs need to be taken 6 times a day, 3 tablets in the morning and 3 tablets in the evening. On the other hand, Merck’s treatment requires a total of eight pills, four in the morning and four in the evening.
How effective are the pills?
In early October, Merck revealed that if its pills are taken within five days of the onset of the disease, its pills can reduce the chance of hospitalization or death for high-risk patients with COVID-19 by 50%.
The company said at the time that virus sequencing to date showed that its drug is effective against all variants of COVID-19-including the more deadly Delta.
On Friday, Pfizer stated that if a patient receives treatment within three days of the onset of symptoms, its pills can reduce the chance of hospitalization or death by nearly 90%, and can reduce the chance of hospitalization or death by 85% within five days of the onset of symptoms.
Among the 1,219 patients studied by Pfizer, 0.8% of the patients were hospitalized, and no one died within 28 days after treatment, while the hospitalization rate for the placebo group who did not take the drug was 7%, and the number of deaths was 7.
The company said that two other trials are still in progress, including people who have no potential risk factors and people who have been exposed to the virus but have not yet been infected.
Are there any side effects?
Although both Pfizer and Merck’s drugs have shown promising results, none of them have no potential side effects.
Pfizer’s drug must be taken with an older antiviral drug called ritonavir, which can increase the activity of the inhibitor but may cause gastrointestinal side effects and interfere with other drugs.
In some animal studies, similar drugs similar to Merck’s are also related to birth defects, although the company said that current research on its drugs has not shown any signs of birth defects or cancer.
Although only limited treatment data were released, both companies expressed confidence in the safety of their drugs.
According to Pfizer, approximately 20% of patients taking the drug or placebo experienced most minor adverse events, and among patients taking the drug, 1.7% experienced severe side effects.
In Merck’s case, 12% of patients taking the drug and 11% of patients taking a placebo experienced adverse events. But the company’s pills target the genetic code of the virus, leading some experts to question whether the drug will cause mutations such as birth defects or tumors.
However, British regulators stated that the ability of the pill to interact with DNA has been “extensively” studied and does not pose a risk to humans.
How does it change the fight against COVID-19?
Although the UK is still the first and only country to approve Merck’s antiviral pills, other countries are not far behind.
The US consultants are scheduled to meet in late November to vote on whether the drug should be approved, and Health Canada said it is still reviewing the pharmaceutical company’s data before making a decision.
Merck has so far reached a deal to sell more than 3 million courses of drugs, and US President Joe Biden said on Friday that the United States has received “millions” of Pfizer antiviral pills.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti told the Canadian media that the “slow burning” of hospitalization may have increased the urgency of the drug’s approval in the UK-Evans also agreed with this view.
Although it seems urgent to approve it in other countries such as the United Kingdom and other countries that are struggling with hospitalization due to the virus, both experts said that Canada’s health regulators will certainly look at it from a more domestic perspective.
Evans said that the vast majority of the Canadian population has been vaccinated and protected against COVID-19-basically placing antiviral drugs in a “niche” position.
Evans said the drug will not specifically protect a person from the virus, but it will protect them from the serious consequences of infection.
“So this will be a drug, if you want to think about it, it’s in a niche, and the niche is an unvaccinated person, where you don’t have the great protection of a vaccine,” he said.
However, Evans warned that the drug may prompt people who are hesitant to vaccinate.
“If this drug proves to be useful, it will make people who should have been vaccinated… say,’Okay, no, no, we have antiviral drugs here, so I don’t think I will bother to go. Get vaccinated,’that’s one of its only drawbacks, right?”
—Documents from Canadian media, Associated Press and Reuters
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