Pfizer Announces COVID-19 Antiviral Pill

November 9, 2021

Last Friday, Pfizer announced that the clinical trial for their COVID-19 antiviral pill, Paxlovid, demonstrated high efficacy in preventing severe COVID-19 in at-risk persons. Paxlovid is unique and differs from Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral, Molnupiravir, by binding to enzymes responsible for the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibiting its life cycle.

In their Phase 2/3 clinical trial, those who received the drug within three days of experiencing symptoms were 89% less likely to be hospitalized or die. In the overall study population through Day 28, no deaths were reported in patients treated with Paxlovid, and only .8% of patients who received Paxlovid were hospitalized through Day 28. 10 deaths occurred in the placebo group. Like Merck’s trial for Molnupiravir, the Pfizer clinical trial has been ended early due to the “overwhelming efficacy demonstrated in these results” (1).