Pfizer and Medicines Patent Pool to facilitate global access to pharmaceutical company anti-COVID pill

Pfizer has signed a voluntary license agreement that should allow access to its anti-COVID pill beyond rich countries once it has been licensed, the US pharmaceutical giant and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced Tuesday.

Manufacturers of generic drugs “that receive sublicenses will be able to offer the new drug in association with ritonavir (used against the AIDS virus) in 95 countries, covering about 53% of the world population”, Specified a spokesman for Unitaid, which MPP created, during a meeting with the UN press in Geneva.

At the beginning of November, Pfizer, which already markets one of the most effective vaccines against COVID-19 with the German group BioNTech, indicated that its oral antiviral PF-07321332 was 89% effective in preventing hospitalization or death among adults. who are at high risk of developing a severe form of the disease, based on intermediate results of clinical trials.

With this agreement, Pfizer It is on the same path as its competitor Merck, which has struck a similar deal with MPP for its own oral anti-COVID, molnupiravir, which also exhibits a strong efficacy rate.

These promising results have yet to be confirmed, he stressed. Esteban Ravine, responsible for the development of MPP policies. But if they are validated, the availability “it will be a matter of months and not years”, He assured.

Although there are already treatments – mainly in the form of synthetic antibodies – they are drugs for patients who already have severe forms of the disease and are injected intravenously and therefore are complex to administer.

In contrast, a pill or tablet can be quickly prescribed to the patient, who can easily take it at home.

The treatments of Merck and Pfizer, which would also have few side effects, envisage ten doses over five days.

In parallel, an antidepressant that is already in the public domain, fluvoxamine, showed encouraging results in preventing severe forms of COVID-19, according to a study published in October by Brazilian researchers in the journal Lancet Global Health.

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