The makers of an antiviral pill for Covid-19 have said they stopped a trial after the drug was shown to cut by 89 per cent the chances of hospital admission or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease.
Pfizer said it plans to submit interim trial results for its pill, which is given in combination with an older antiviral called ritonavir, to the US Food and Drug Administration as part of the emergency-use application it opened in October.
The combination treatment, which will have the brand name Paxlovid, consists of three pills given twice daily.
The planned analysis of 1,219 patients in Pfizer's study looked at hospital admission and death among people diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid-19 with at least one risk factor for developing severe disease, such as obesity or older age.
It found that 0.8 per cent of those given Pfizer's drug within three days of symptom onset were taken to hospital and none died within the 28-day period after treatment. That compared with a hospital admission rate of 7 per cent for placebo patients. There were also seven deaths in the placebo group.
Rates were similar for patients treated within five days of showing symptoms – 1 per cent of the treatment group was taken to hospital, compared with 6.7 per cent for the placebo group, which included 10 deaths.
The results appear to be even better than Merck & Co's pill, molnupiravir, which last month was shown to halve the likelihood of dying or being admitted to hospital for Covid-19 patients also at high risk of serious illness.
Full trial data is not yet available from either company.
Antivirals need to be given as early as possible, before an infection takes hold, to be most effective. Merck tested its drug within five days of symptom onset.
"We saw that we did have high efficacy, even if it was five days after a patient has been treated ... people might wait a couple of days before getting a test ... and this means that we have time to treat people and really provide a benefit from a public health perspective," Annaliesa Anderson, head of the Pfizer programme, told Reuters.
The company did not give details of any side effects of the treatment but said adverse events happened in about 20% of both treatment and placebo patients.
"These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients’ lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalisations,” said Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive.
Pfizer said it was expecting to produce more than 180,000 packs by the end of the year and at least 50 million packs by the end of 2022, of which 21 million would be produced in the first half.
"We are currently bringing on additional capacity and ramping up further and we look forward to updating these numbers in the coming weeks," the company said.
Infectious disease experts say that preventing Covid-19 through wide use of vaccines remains the best way to control the pandemic but only 58 per cent of people in the US, for example, are fully vaccinated and access in many other parts of the world is limited.
Pfizer's drug, part of a class known as protease inhibitors, is designed to block an enzyme the coronavirus needs to multiply.
The company is also studying whether its pill could be used by people without risk factors for serious Covid-19, as well as to prevent coronavirus infection in people exposed to the virus.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Where to donate in the UAE
The Emirates Charity Portal
You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.
The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments
The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Al Noor Special Needs Centre
You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.
Beit Al Khair Society
Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.
Dar Al Ber Society
Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.
Dubai Cares
Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.
Emirates Airline Foundation
Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.
Emirates Red Crescent
On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.
Gulf for Good
Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.
Noor Dubai Foundation
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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