COVID-19 patients as young as 12 can now be treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer , after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization on Wednesday.
“Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for COVID-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally—a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic, ” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19. ”
In early November, Pfizer published trial results for the new oral medication , saying that it reduced hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 by 89 percent. Although the results had not undergone peer-review, Paxlovid’s strong effectiveness moved an independent data-monitoring committee to recommend ending the particular trial early.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
