WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2022) US pharmaceutical company Pfizer said on Tuesday that its oral treatment Paxlovid has shown efficacy against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus during laboratory tests.
"Pfizer today shared results from multiple studies demonstrating that the in vitro efficacy of nirmatrelvir, the active main protease inhibitor of PAXLOVID, is maintained against the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron," the company said in a press release. "Taken together, these in vitro studies suggest that PAXLOVID has the potential to maintain plasma concentrations many-fold times higher than the amount required to prevent Omicron from replicating in cells."
Pfizer's chief scientific officer Mikael Dolsten said in the release that Paxlovid was specifically designed to retain its efficiency against different variants of the novel coronavirus.
Paxlovid is currently only available for emergency or conditional use in several countries around the world, release said.
Pfizer's Paxlovid is a pill treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases for people 12 years of age and older weighing at least 88 Pounds with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death, according to the US food and Drug Association. The treatment is believed to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death among patients at high risk of severe illness by 88%.
