Healthcare company Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) on Wednesday announced an agreement with the UK government to supply another 2.5 million treatment courses of its investigational candidate PAXLOVID (nirmatrelvir [PF-07321332] tablets and ritonavir tablets), subject to local authorization.
The company said PAXLOVID is an investigational SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitor antiviral therapy. Nirmatrelvir is designed to inhibit viral replication at a stage known as proteolysis, which occurs before viral RNA replication. If authorized or approved, PAXLOVID will be administered at a dose of 300 mg (two 150 mg tablets) of nirmatrelvir with one 100 mg tablet of ritonavir, given twice-daily for five days.
This new agreement is in addition to the prior 250,000 treatment courses contracted by the UK Government, pending authorization and recommendation for use, bringing the full amount of treatment courses to 2.75 million.
In anticipation of regulatory authorization or approval, the company initiated manufacturing of PAXLOVID earlier this year and expects to produce up to 80 million courses of treatment by the end of 2022, with 30 million treatment courses available in the first half of the year. It is seeking conditional marketing authorization with the MHRA and is working to submit applications to regulatory agencies around the world.
According to the company, it is committed to working toward equitable access to PAXLOVID for all people at an affordable price. The high income countries will pay more than lower income countries.
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