Tag: Pfizer

  • COVID-19 oral pill could be ready by year-end, says Pfizer CEO

    COVID-19 oral pill could be ready by year-end, says Pfizer CEO

    US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Albert Bourla has said that the company’s anti-viral oral pill for coronavirus is in early-stage trials and could be ready by the end of the year.

    According to reports, the company, which developed the first authorised COVID-19 vaccine in the US with German drugmaker BioNTech, began an early-stage clinical trial for testing a new antiviral therapy for Covid-19 in March.

    The medication is part of a class of medicines called protease inhibitors and works by inhibiting an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate in human cells.

    Read more – Cleric believes COVID vaccine makes people ‘gay’

    “If clinical trials go well and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves it, the drug could be distributed across the US by the end of the year,” Bourla told CNBC.

    Protease inhibitors are used to treat other viral pathogens such as HIV and hepatitis C, the report said.

    Last month, the pharmaceutical giant asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for its Covid-19 vaccine to include children ages 12 to 15.

    The request to expand emergency use comes just days after Pfizer released data demonstrating its vaccine was 100 per cent effective and well-tolerated by the younger group.

    Pfizer is also working on its vaccine for 6-month to 11-year-old children.

    A recent study, published in the journal Science, showed that a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines against Covid may boost immunity against the Covid-19 variants, only in people who were previously infected with the deadly virus.

    In people who have not previously been infected and have so far only received one dose of vaccine, the immune response to variants of concern may be insufficient, the study indicated.

  • ‘Pakistan got no reason to celebrate Pfizer vaccine’

    A day after Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company, announced 90 per cent effective coronavirus vaccine, Pakistan’s anti-coronavirus task force head Dr Attaur Rahman said that it was “too early to celebrate the success” for multiple reasons.

    In a statement on Monday, Pfizer said that an early peek at the data suggested the shots may be a surprisingly robust 90% effective at preventing COVID-19. “We’re in a position potentially to be able to offer some hope,” Dr Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, told The Associated Press. “We’re very encouraged.”

    Reacting to the celebrations, Dr Rahman said the vaccine would not be suitable for Pakistan owing to multiple problems, especially the storage issue.

    According to the task force chairman, the vaccine needs to be kept at a temperature of -80 °C, which was a major problem for third world countries, including Pakistan.

    “We should not think much about this vaccine, instead focus on other vaccines that are being developed and have seen similar results but haven’t been announced with fanfare. They are working quietly,” said Dr Rahman.

    It may be noted here that the number of coronavirus cases are soaring across Pakistan amid resurgence of the virus. On Monday, Pakistan registered over 1,500 infections and over a dozen deaths.

    The government, as a result, has tighten restrictions to curb the infection rate.

    PFIZER VACCINE:

    Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top-infectious disease expert, said the results suggesting 90% effectiveness are “just extraordinary,” adding: “Not very many people expected it would be as high as that.”

    “It’s going to have a major impact on everything we do with respect to COVID,” Fauci said.

    Pharmaceutical companies and various countries are in a global race to develop a vaccine against the virus. Fauci said that the Pfizer vaccine and virtually all others in testing target the spike protein the coronavirus uses to infect cells, so the results validate that approach.

    Monday’s announcement doesn’t mean a vaccine is imminent: This interim analysis, from an independent data monitoring board, looked at 94 infections recorded so far in a study that has enrolled nearly 44,000 people in the US and five other countries. Some participants got the vaccine, while others got dummy shots.

    Pfizer Inc. did not provide any more details about those infections and cautioned that the initial protection rate might change by the time the study ends. Even revealing such early data is highly unusual.

    Authorities have stressed it’s unlikely any vaccine will arrive much before the end of the year, and initial supplies will be rationed.