Pfizer agrees to allow other companies to make its COVID-19 pill

LONDON (AP) – Pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. has signed an agreement with a UN-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available for more than half of the population. world population.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would license the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Drug Patent Fund, allowing generic drug companies to produce the pill for use in 95 countries, representing about 53 percent of the world’s population. population.

The deal excludes some large countries that have suffered devastating coronavirus outbreaks. For example, while a Brazilian pharmaceutical company could obtain a license to manufacture the pill for export to other countries, the drug could not be manufactured generically for use in Brazil.

Still, health officials said the fact that a deal was reached even before the Pfizer pill was licensed anywhere could help end the pandemic faster.

“It is very significant that we can provide access to a drug that appears to be effective and has just been developed, to more than 4 billion people,” said Esteban Burrone, chief of policy for the Drug Patent Fund.

He estimated that other drug manufacturers could start producing the pill in a few months, but acknowledged that the deal would not please everyone.

We try to strike a very fine balance between the interests of the (company), the sustainability that generics producers require and, most importantly, the public health needs in low- and middle-income countries, ”Burrone said.

Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries and will waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement while COVID-19 remains a public health emergency.


RELATED: UK Authorizes Merck’s Antiviral Pill, First Shown to Treat COVID


Earlier this month, Pfizer said its pill reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90 percent in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections. Independent experts recommended stopping the company’s study based on its promising results.

Pfizer said it would ask the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators to authorize the pill as soon as possible.

Since the pandemic broke out last year, researchers around the world have been rushing to develop a pill to treat COVID-19 that can be easily taken at home to ease symptoms, speed recovery, and keep people out of the hospital. At the moment, most COVID-19 treatments need to be administered intravenously or by injection.

FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2021, file photo, the Pfizer logo is displayed at the company’s New York headquarters. The United States approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021 (AP Photo / Mark Lennihan, file).

Britain authorized Merck’s COVID-19 pill earlier this month and it is pending approval elsewhere. In a similar agreement with the Drug Patent Fund announced in October, Merck agreed to allow other drug makers to make its COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, available in 105 poorer countries.

Doctors Without Borders said it was “discouraged” that the Pfizer deal does not make the drug available to everyone, noting that the deal announced Tuesday also excludes countries such as China, Argentina and Thailand.

“The world already knows that pfizet’s access to COVID-19 medical tools must be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, if we really want to control this pandemic,” said Yuanqiong Hu, Senior Legal Policy Adviser at Doctors Without Borders.

The decisions of Pfizer and Merck to share their COVID-19 drug patents are in stark contrast to the refusal of Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers to release their vaccine prescriptions for wider production. A center set up by the World Health Organization in South Africa aimed at sharing messenger RNA vaccine recipes and technologies has not attracted a single pharmacist to join.

Less than 1 percent of Pfizer’s COVID-19 injections have gone to poorer countries.

Reference-toronto.citynews.ca

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