New Delhi: Pfizer Inc said recent lab data suggested its antiviral Covid-19 pill was effective against the fast-spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The US company also said final analysis of its oral medicine showed near 90 per cent efficacy in preventing hospitalisations and deaths in high-risk patients infected with Covid-19, Reuters reported.


Based on early data in approximately 1,200 patients, Pfizer Inc reported last month that the pill was roughly 89 per cent effective in reducing hospitalisations or deaths when compared to placebo. An additional 1,000 persons were included in the trials of which data was released on Tuesday.


Nobody Died After Receiving Pfizer Treatment During Trial


During the trial, nobody died after receiving the Pfizer treatment. However, 12 deaths were recorded among placebo recipients.


As per the treatment, the Pfizer pills are taken with antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning after onset of symptoms. If authorized, the treatment will be sold as Paxlovid.


Preliminary results from a second clinical study showed that the treatment decreased hospitalisations by 70% in 600 standard-risk patients, the Reuters report said.


Pfizer said it could ship 180,000 treatment courses this year and plans to produce at least 80 million more in 2022.


'Its A Stunning Outcome': Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer 


"It's a stunning outcome. We're talking about a staggering number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented. And of course, if you deploy this quickly after infection, we are likely to reduce transmission dramatically," Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten was quoted as saying by Reuters in its report.


Dolsten said he expected the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies to approve the drug for use in high-risk individuals soon. He does not believe that a meeting of the FDA advisory group will be required.


"We're in very advanced regulatory dialogues with both Europe and the UK, and we have dialogues with most of the major regulatory agencies globally," Dolsten said.


In the United States, no oral antiviral therapies for Covid-19 have been approved so far.


Pfizer's drug operates in a different way. It is part of a class of drugs called protease inhibitors currently used to treat HIV, hepatitis C and other viruses.


According to Dolsten, recent laboratory research revealed that the Omicron variation's protease activity is "as good as essentially any SARS-COV-2 variant of concern".


Merck & Co Request Emergency Use Of Molnupiravir Antiviral Drug


On the other hand, Merck & Co has requested emergency use authorisation for its antiviral drug molnupiravir. However, in a clinical study of high-risk patients, the medicine only decreased hospitalisations and deaths by only 30%.


Some experts have expressed concerns about the Merck drug's potential to cause birth abnormalities, as well as concerns that it may lead the virus to evolve.


(With Reuters inputs)