If it sees success in trials, the pill would be good enough to be given early to affected individuals and would block the viral replication that increases COVID’s intensity.
Pfizer’s novel pill could treat the coronavirus at the earliest signs and is going through initial human safety testing. The pill, upon ingesting, binds to an enzyme known as a protease to stop the virus from replicating and thus would prevent severe illness. Medicines with protease have shown effective results in curing viruses earlier, including HIV and Hepatitis C.
“Given the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the continued global impact of Covid-19, it appears likely that it will be critical to have access to therapeutic options both now and beyond the pandemic,” said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer, in a statement.
Dolsten sounded promising on the novel pill’s results and said that it didn’t show any problems and could give relieving results within weeks.
The protease inhibitor pill is Pfizer’s second attempt at creating such medicine. The pharma company has been testing another drug given intravenously to patients with severe symptoms. Both the drugs are undergoing human trials for now.
Extensive research on creating effective drugs to prevent and cure Covid-19 is surfacing from various medicine-producing giants; it gives us a light of hope that soon we’ll be back to our normal routine lives just the way it was before the virus struck our world. One of the major drug developers, Merck & Co., developed a Covid-19 preventive pill earlier, and the drug is in its late-stage trial has shown promising results so far.
Combined Trial
Dolsten said, “If everything goes as planned, Pfizer will begin the second and third phase trial combined. This early testing would allow the drug distribution for emergency-use authorization from the food and drug authorities. Most late would be by the end of this year. Once trials are completed, and the drug is marked safe to use, infected individuals would have to take two pills each day for a span of five days to prevent the virus from multiplying in one’s body. Dolsten stated, “the Pfizer pill is a potential game-changer.”
It is yet to be found in the pill offers the same efficacy for the individuals who have been exposed to Covid-19 through colleagues or family members. If so, ingesting it would make us all much safer and help prevent the virus’s spread at large.
Pfizer’s oral protease inhibitor has shown promising results so far and has numerous potential advantages. It showed signs of fighting the SARS virus and MERS virus. And hence experts believe it will be sufficient to battle all the forms of virus variants. Fron what the initial results are showing now, various virus-killing pills could be ingested in combination to provide a better and swifter cure. Stay tuned on the pill development, where Pfizer has announced releasing more data on its effects and the results of early testings in April.