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This Friday, the laboratory Pfizer officially announced the results released on its clinical trial carried out to the pill that they have developed to try to fight Covid – 19 is capable of reducing by up to 89% risks of hospitalization and deaths in people who have been infected with the disease.
Pfizer’s pill against Covid- 19 is called Paxlovid, as reported by various US and international media, 1 participated in the study, 219 patients who were infected with the virus, who were given this drug along with another antiviral, and the combination reduced by that percentage developing a severe case of coronavirus, compared to that The patients who were only given placebos.
Also, the study took into account other variables, particularly those risk factors that patients had about developing a mild or moderate disease, such as obesity or age.
Likewise, it is detailed in the report that 0.8% of those who received the Pfizer drug within The three days after the onset of symptoms were hospitalized and none had died 28 days after treatment. This was compared to a 7% hospitalization rate for placebo patients , in which group there were 7 deaths.
How does Paxlovid, the Pfizer pill, work against the Covid – 19?
What this Pfizer drug does is that adheres to an enzyme called protease to prevent the coronavirus virus from replicating in the body. In fact, some drugs to treat HIV and hepatitis C work in a similar way.
The developers of Paxlovid relied on a formula created almost a decade ago to develop an experimental antiviral drug after the SARS (Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic. Acute Severe), late 2002. The old drug had to be administered intravenously. But in July of last year, Pfizer researchers modified the original molecule and created a new compound that turned out to be very potent against Covid – 19 and other coronaviruses in laboratory tests and that it could be used as a pill.
This pill should be taken 2 times a day for 5 days and should be combined with a second medicine called ritonavir, as it helps the Paxlovid compound to stay in the bloodstream for longer.
Pfizer also indicated that it plans to send the results of these interim trials to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as part of the emergency use request it submitted in October.
If the Pfizer pill is authorized, there could be 2 Covid pills by the end of the year- 19 that people could take at home to prevent infections and reduce the risk of hospitalization.
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