The drug company said it would halt the trial due to "overwhelming efficacy" and add data from the drug known as Paxlovid to its ongoing submission to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization as soon as possible. as possible.

The announcement comes a day after the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency authorized Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics' oral antiviral, molnupiravir, to treat mild to moderate cases of Covid-19 in adults at risk of disease. serious.

“These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or cleared by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patient lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalizations.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Forbes magazine.

The antiviral is designed to block an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate. It is given with a medicine that is usually used to treat HIV to ensure that it remains active in the body for a longer period of time.

The company is already signing government contracts for the antiviral, agreeing to sell 500,000 doses to Australia, 250,000 to the UK and 70,000 to South Korea.

The trial focused on high-risk patients who had not yet been hospitalized, and the interim analysis was based on the 1,219 patients enrolled as of late September at sites around the world. The data showed that only 0.8 percent of trial participants who took the antiviral drug within three days of the onset of symptoms were hospitalized, compared with 7% who received a placebo. Results were similar to those treated within five days. None of the patients who took the drug died, compared with 1.6% who received a placebo.