The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer sees the high effectiveness of its anti-corona pill confirmed after a final evaluation of the clinical study.
Accordingly, the tablet showed an effectiveness of almost 90 percent in preventing hospital stays and deaths in high-risk patients, as Pfizer announced on Tuesday.
This applies if treatment was started within three days of the onset of symptoms of the disease.
If the treatment started within five days of the onset of symptoms, the protection was 88 percent.
The latest laboratory tests also indicated that the drug would also maintain its effectiveness against the fast-spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus. Pfizer published preliminary study results in November that the pill was 89 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations or death compared to a placebo. The interim results were based on data from around 1200 people, the final results include a further 1000 test persons. None of the study participants who received Pfizer treatment died - compared with twelve deaths among those who took the placebo.
The drug company also released initial data from a second clinical study showing that the treatment reduced hospital stays by about 70 percent in around 600 adults at normal risk of infection.
“We're talking about an incredible number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented.
And of course we can drastically reduce the transmission if we use this agent quickly after infection, ”said Pfizer research director Mikael Dolsten.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the drug could "save the lives of patients around the world."
Treatment with paxlovid could become an important “tool” in the fight against the pandemic, also in view of the spread of virus variants.
The pharmaceutical company, which together with the German company Biontech already manufactures one of the most widely used corona vaccines, has submitted an application to the US FDA for emergency approval for the drug.
The EU Medicines Agency (EMA) is also testing paxlovid.
The US government has already secured ten million treatment units for more than five billion dollars.
No oral antiviral treatments for Covid-19 have yet been approved in the United States.
The drug reduces the ability of the coronavirus to multiply in the body's cells and thus slows down the further development of the disease.
The new active ingredient is combined with the drug ritonavir, which is already used to treat HIV patients.
The American pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) has also developed molnupiravir, an antiviral drug against the coronavirus.
According to the company, its effectiveness is only 30 percent.