On Tuesday, Pfizer announced it has started clinical testing in the U.S. of an experimental oral antiviral drug for COVID-19, reported The Hill.
As said by the company, the investigational drug “has demonstrated potent in vitro antiviral activity” against many coronaviruses including the virus that causes COVID-19, setting it to be potential asset for fighting threats in the future.
The potential candidate is in the class of drugs also known as protease inhibitor, which has found application in treating hepatitis C and HIV. The way this type of drugs reacts is by blocking a critical enzyme, or a protease, needed for the virus to replicate.
“Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contact the virus. Given the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the continued global impact of COVID-19, it appears likely that it will be critical to access to therapeutic options both now and beyond the pandemic,” said Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten in a statement.
There’s no need for the patients to be hospitalized or in a critical state. The drug can be taken with a prescription at the first sign of infection, said Dolsten.
For patients who are hospitalized for COVID-19 or in critical care, Pfizer is in a test phase of an intravenously administrated investigational protease inhibitor.
Pfizer cooperated with the German partner BioNTech for developing the vaccine for COVID-19 that has been authorized and released on the market. However they weren’t so successful in developing of therapeutics.
The only drug for treating COVID-19 patient approved by the Food and Drug Administration at the moment is Remdesivir form Gilead Sciences. An emergency authorization for two more drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly was granted by the FDA.
In order to put the pandemic under control, health experts say that there is a need of more different treatment therapies.
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