COVID-19 Medicine Could be Available by the End of the Year
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A pill to treat COVID-19 is being developed by Pfizer and could be available by the end of the year, company CEO Albert Bourla says.
In March, Pfizer launched an early-stage clinical trial of a new antiviral drug for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, CBS News reported.
Part of a group of medicines called protease inhibitors, which are used to treat HIV and Hepatitis C, the drug curbs production of enzymes needed for the virus to multiply in human cells.
If clinical trials are successful and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the drug, it could be available across the United States later in 2021, Bourla told CNBC on Tuesday, CBS News reported.
Last month, Mikael Dolsten, M.D., chief scientific officer and president, worldwide research, development, and medical of Pfizer, said it is possible that the new drug could be prescribed "at the first sign of infection, without requiring that patients are hospitalized or in critical care."
"I think that with this drug we really have to look at it as a game changer," Dr. Neeta Ogden told CBSN.
"We haven't seen medication even discussed on the horizon that one can take early on or prophylactically if you've been exposed, kind of like what we have for the flu."
She added, "The virus continues to mutate, and it will continue to be present in some form, and we need to have these kinds of remedies that we can take at the first sign of symptoms that will prevent spread, that will prevent severity, that will prevent hospitalizations."
Pfizer — which developed the first approved COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. with German drugmaker BioNTech — continues to test its vaccine in 6-month-old to 11-year-old children.
The company earlier this month asked the FDA to widen its vaccine authorization to adolescents between 12 to 15 years old after studies found it to be effective. Bourla told CNBC he's "very optimistic" the agency will grant its request.
Asked about hesitancy over getting the vaccine, Bourla said he would tell people: "Your decision is not going to influence only your health — your decision to get vaccinated is going to influence the health of others and likely the health of the people that you like and you love the most because they're the people that you interact with."
Source: MedicalExpress.com, CBS News, CBSN News
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