Covid-19 treatments updates

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Belgium agrees to buy 10,000 courses each of Pfizer, Merck Covid-19 pills

Belgium has agreed to buy 10,000 courses each of the Covid-19 antiviral oral treatments developed by Pfizer and Merck & Co, a spokesman for the health ministry told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Governments around the world are scrambling to buy Paxlovid, the pill developed by Pfizer. Molnupiravir, jointly developed by Merck with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, faces setbacks after disappointing trial data and France said in December it had cancelled its order for the drug..

Belgium's health minister said in early December that the government was in talks with Merck to buy Molnupiravir, and Belgian health authorities had advised that both Molnupiravir and Paxlovid should be purchased.

“Both talks are finalised and we will buy 10,000 of both,” Arne Brinckman, a spokesman for the Belgian health ministry told Reuters, when asked about the possible purchase of courses of both treatments.

 

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Mexico grants emergency use approval for Merck's Covid-19 pill

Mexico's health regulator has granted authorisation for emergency use of drugmaker Merck's Covid-19 pill Molnupiravir, Reuters quoted President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as saying.

The health regulator, COFEPRIS, was expected to soon also approve Pfizer's Paxlovid pill to treat Covid-19, Lopez Obrador added at a regular news conference.

Both medications were approved last month in the US.

 

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South Korea to deploy Pfizer Covid-19 pills as Omicron wave looms

South Korea will begin treating coronavirus patients with Pfizer's antiviral pills on Friday, health officials said, as concern mounts over the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

At least 21,000 of the pills, called Paxlovid, will arrive on Thursday and be sent out to some 280 pharmacies and 90 residential treatment centres, Reuters quotes Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) as saying.

The medication will be used to treat more than 1,000 people a day, with priority groups including patients with a high chance of developing critical symptoms, those aged 65 or older and those with reduced immunity, the KDCA said.

 

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Canada approves Pfizer's oral Covid antiviral treatment

Canada on Monday approved Pfizer Inc's oral antiviral treatment for mild to moderate cases of Covid-19 in people aged 18 and older but said supply shortages would keep doses from being made available immediately.

Infections and hospitalizations due the Omicron variant have been rising in Canada, forcing provinces to put in restrictions and the federal government to support impacted businesses.

Pfizer's two-drug antiviral regimen, Paxlovid, was nearly 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in patients at high risk of severe illness, according to data from the company's clinical trial.

 

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THE HAGUE: The EU's drug watchdog approved Pfizer's coronavirus pill on Thursday, making it the first oral antiviral treatment for the disease to be authorised in Europe.

Studies showed the drug called Paxlovid reduces hospitalisation and death in patients at risk of severe Covid, and may also be effective against the Omicron variant.

Pills are seen as a potentially huge step in ending the pandemic as they can be taken at home, rather than in hospital.

"Paxlovid is the first antiviral medicine to be given by mouth that is recommended in the EU for treating Covid-19," the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

The United States, Canada and Israel are among a handful of countries to have already given the green light to the Pfizer treatment.

The European Commission must now formally authorise the drug but that is a rubber-stamp procedure that usually takes hours or days.

"Paxlovid is the first oral antiviral for home use in our portfolio, and has the potential to make a real difference for persons at high risk of progression to severe Covid," EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement.

"We have also seen the promising evidence regarding Paxlovid's effectiveness against Omicron and other variants."

The Pfizer treatment is a combination of a new molecule, PF-07321332, and HIV antiviral ritonavir, that are taken as separate tablets.

The EMA said it "recommended authorising Paxlovid for treating Covid-19 in adults who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at increased risk of the disease becoming severe".

EMA experts looked at a study "showing that treatment with Paxlovid significantly reduced hospitalisations or deaths in patients who have at least one underlying condition putting them at risk of severe Covid-19".

Patients were given the pill within five days of developing symptoms and over the following month only 0.8 percent of the 1,039 people studied ended up in hospital, compared with 6.3 percent of those who received a placebo.

There were no deaths in the Paxlovid group and nine deaths in the placebo group, the EMA said.

In December the EMA cleared individual states to decide whether to make early emergency use of Paxlovid, but held off on deciding on full authorisation across the 27-nation bloc.

The watchdog is still weighing a similar application for US drugmaker Merck's anti-Covid pill.

Unlike vaccines, the Pfizer treatment does not target the ever-evolving spike protein which the coronavirus uses to invade cells.

It should therefore in theory be more variant-proof, and the company has said preliminary lab studies have backed up that hypothesis.

 

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Britain gets fifth Covid vaccine after Novavax approval...​

Britain has approved Novavax's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine for use in adults, bringing a fifth coronavirus shot to the country amidst the rapid spread of the Omicron variant that has led to a spike in cases, reports Reuters.

The vaccine, Nuvaxovid, was approved for use in Britons aged 18 years and older as it met the required safety, quality and effectiveness standards, the United Kingdom's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said in a statement.

A woman holds a small bottle and a medical syringe in front of displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. — Reuters...

 

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Japan to consider early approval for Shionogi Covid pill.​

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government would consider granting conditional early approval for the oral Covid-19 treatment being developed by Shionogi & Co Ltd, as the firm prepares to start a late-stage global trial.

Shionogi Chief Executive Isao Teshirogi told reporters that the company could file in Japan for early approval of the drug as soon as next week, and that it could deliver enough doses for one million people by the end of March.

Antiviral pills from Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co are already being used in several countries and have demonstrated efficacy in trials of adults with Covid -19 who are at risk of serious illness.
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Japan approves Pfizer Covid-19 oral pills amid surging infections.​

Japan has granted fast-track approval to US drug maker Pfizer Inc's Covid-19 pill, the heath minister said, as the country struggles to slow fast-spreading omicron infections.

The approval came less than a month after Pfizer applied in mid-January, an exceptional speed in a country where foreign drug approvals usually take much longer.

Health Minister Shigeyuki Goto said the availability of Pfizer's Paxlovid pill gives high-risk patients, including elderly people and those with underlying health issues, greater treatment options.

The approval comes as surging cases among elderly patients are starting to overwhelm hospitals in Tokyo and other metropolitan areas, and delayed booster vaccinations have reached only about eight per cent of the population..

Paxlovid, a Pfizer coronavirus disease pill, is seen manufactured in Ascoli, Italy, in this undated handout photo. — Reuters

 

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IMAGE SOURCE,CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUS

UK experts say they have found another life-saving drug that can help people ill with Covid.


The anti-inflammatory baricitinib is normally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Trials suggest it can cut death risk by about a fifth in patients needing hospital care for severe Covid.

It could be used with other Covid treatments, such as the cheap steroid dexamethasone, to save even more lives, researchers say.

That might halve deaths.

The NHS may soon recommend baricitinib based on these new results. A 10-day course of the pills costs around £250, although the NHS may be able to negotiate a discount.

Protecting lives​

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: "A big thank you to all of the researchers, doctors and volunteers involved in this work.
"Our medical and scientific experts will now consider the results before any decisions are made on next steps."

Although vaccines have been doing a great job at cutting infections and protecting lives, some people will still catch and become very sick with Covid.

And the Recovery trial has been testing existing medications on Covid patients to see if they help.

It has already identified dexamethasone, tocilizumab and a treatment called Ronapreve - discoveries that have changed clinical practice worldwide and been credited with saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives, experts say.

And now it appears some very ill Covid patients, including those on ventilators, fare much better if they receive baricitinib.

The benefit was on top of other proven life-saving Covid drugs.

'Something positive'​

One of the patients enrolled on the trial, Mark Rivvers, 51, from Cambridge, said: "I was in hospital for almost a month, mostly in an intensive-care unit.
"Everything in my body seemed to be fighting against everything else.

"I was on almost constant respiratory support, I developed sepsis, and I had pneumonia all across my lungs.

"But I saw it as my duty to take part in the Recovery trial because I knew that no matter what happened to me, I was doing something positive to help others.

"I'm really pleased about the result with baricitinib and hope that it can now be used to benefit many others."

There are now many drugs that can help fight Covid:

• anti-inflammatory drugs that stop the immune system overreacting with deadly consequences
• anti-viral drugs that make it harder for the coronavirus to replicate inside the body
• antibody therapies that mimic the immune system to attack the virus

Recovery trial joint chief investigator Sir Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology, at Oxford Population Health, said: "It is now well established that in people admitted to hospital because of severe Covid, an overactive immune response is a key driver of lung damage.

"Today's results not only show that treatment with baricitinib improves the chances of survival for patients with severe Covid-19 but that this benefit is additional to that from other treatments that dampen down the overactive immune response, such as dexamethasone and tocilizumab.
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