Paxlovid, Pfizer’s Oral COVID-19 Pill, Approved in Canada – National | Globalnews.ca

Pfizer’s Paxlovid COVID-19 antiviral pill has been approved for use in Canada.

Health Canada announced Monday that it has approved Pfizer’s pill for use in the fight against COVID-19. The regulator posted on its website that the drug has got authorisation.

Health Canada said Paxlovid is approved for use in adults 18 years of age and older who are positive for COVID-19 and are experiencing mild or moderate illness, or who are more severe. are at high risk of becoming ill.

Paxlovid should not be used to prevent infection or to treat patients who are already hospitalized due to severe or severe COVID-19, nor should it be taken for more than five consecutive days .

Globalnews.ca will broadcast a news conference live by Health Canada officials at 11 a.m. EST.

Last month, the federal government announced that it had signed a purchase agreement with Pfizer to buy one million courses of its treatment, pending regulatory approval. Officials also announced a purchase agreement with Merck, maker of the oral treatment mollupiravir, to buy up to 500,000 courses of its treatment, with the option to add another 500,000 pending approval.

Pfizer began a rolling submission with Health Canada in December for Paxlovid, saying it was designed to block a key enzyme needed for the COVID-19 virus to multiply.

The full results of Pfizer’s 2,250-person study found that the drug reduced combined hospitalization and death in high-risk adults by about 89 percent when taken immediately after initial COVID-19 symptoms.

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Pfizer added on December 14 that its COVID-19 pill appeared to be effective against the Omicron variant.

Separate laboratory testing has also shown that the drug still works when it is pitted against the Omicron variant, according to Pfizer.

The pill has also been approved for use in the United States by the US Food and Drug Administration.

So far in the pandemic, the government has approved four COVID-19 treatments, but all of them must be administered intravenously.

The government had indicated in recent weeks that a decision on approving oral COVID-19 treatments would be taken in the coming days.

In November, Pfizer announced it had signed a deal with a UN-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its own COVID-19 pill, potentially making it available to more than half of the global population. is doing

Last month, Merck announced it would partner with a pharmaceutical company in Ontario to make its antiviral pill in Canada.

Merck said Thermo Fisher is making mollupiravir for distribution in Canada and the United Kingdom as well as European, Asian Pacific and Latin American countries, pending approval in those regions.

Molnupiravir has been shown to be effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk individuals by about 30 percent. It is still under Health Canada review.

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Cardiologist and epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Lebos previously told Global News that antiviral pills could potentially limit the strain of COVID-19 on Canada’s health care system by reducing the effects of the virus, but they “prevent the problem.” are not.”

“It just treats the problem,” he said. “In terms of preventing outbreaks, vaccines are clearly the better course of action.”

— Eric Stober. with files of

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