Pfizer tests pill to ward off COVID-19

Pfizer said on Monday it was now testing a pill that could help people avoid COVID-19[female[feminine if a close contact, such as a family member, contracts the virus.

The drugmaker said it was reviewing the effectiveness of the pill used in combination with a low dose of the anti-HIV drug ritonavir in people who are at least 18 years old and living in the same household as someone who has COVID-19.

Pfizer plans to enroll 2,660 people in the advanced study. Participants will either be given the treatment combination or a dummy drug orally twice a day for five to 10 days.

Pfizer launched in March a early stage clinical trial of new antiviral therapy for the coronavirus, with the goal of deploying it by the end of the year. One of a group of medicines called protease inhibitors, which are used to treat HIV and hepatitis C, the medicine interferes with the production of enzymes necessary for the virus to multiply in human cells.

The oral antiviral therapy could potentially be prescribed “at the first sign of infection, without requiring patients to be hospitalized or in intensive care,” Dr Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer of Pfizer. declared in March.

Researchers expect that using ritonavir in combination with an oral antiviral drug will help slow down the potential treatment’s breakdown so that it stays active longer to help fight the virus.

“If successful, we believe this therapy could help stop the virus early – before it has had a chance to extensively replicate,” Dolsten said in a statement from the drugmaker.

Pfizer is also studying its potential treatment in people already infected with the virus. It is designed to be prescribed at the first sign of infection without requiring hospitalization of patients. The drugmaker expects to see the results of these studies by the end of the year.