Pfizer said Tuesday that prescriptions for its oral antiviral to treat COVID-19 have increased nearly tenfold in the U. S. Since last February, more and more pharmacies and other places were stocked.
CEO Albert Bourla, in a phone call Tuesday morning, said only about 80,000 patients were treated with Paxlovid in the U. S. The U. S. in the week ending April 22, up from 8,000 patients at the end of February. provided with Paxlovid, said Bourla, a quadruple building since February.
Pfizer shares rose more than 1% in Trading Tuesday afternoon.
Paxlovid’s source was limited when the antiviral was first launched during the winter, but Pfizer is ramping up production with 6 million courses produced through the end of March, according to Bourla. Pfizer is on track to manufacture 30 million courses in the first part of 2022 and 120 million by the end of the year, Bourla said.
Pfizer on Tuesday reported $1. 5 billion in Paxlovid sales for the first quarter and maintained its $22 billion sales forecast for 2022. Angela Hwang, Pfizer’s director of biopharmaceuticals, told analysts Tuesday that demand for the antiviral will pile up as nations reorganize doses. and the age of eligibility.
Covid transmission will build up as governments ease public fitness restrictions, and Paxlovid will play a vital role in treating those infected, Hwang said. Pfizer doesn’t have stock available because each and every dose is shipped, he said.
USA. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security ordered a total of 20 million Paxlovid courses, with the delivery of the first 10 million courses scheduled for June and the execution of the next 10 million scheduled for September, according to Biden’s management. In the United States, patients had used more than 500,000 paxlovid courses as of the end of April, a senior management official said last month.
The White House is accelerating the distribution of Paxlovid as a key component of its Covid strategy. The Health and Human Services Decomposer aims to bring the antiviral to 40,000 locations across the country. USA. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention has established at least 2200 sites where other people can get Paxlovid as soon as they test positive for the virus, adding pharmacies, network fitness centers, and long-term care centers.
The Food and Drug Administration legalized Paxlovid in December for adults and youth over the age of 12 infected with Covid and at risk of serious illness from the virus. The FDA approved Merck’s molnupiravir a short time later, but said it would only be used for adults 18 years of age and older who do not have access to Paxlovid or other Covid treatments.
Paxlovid found that it was more effective and had a higher protection profile than molnupiravir in clinical trials. Pfizer’s antiviral reduced the threat of hospitalization or death by 90% in adults with Covid who were at risk of serious illness. Molnupiravir reduced the threat of hospitalization and death by up to 30% in clinical trials in Covid patients with threat of serious illness.
Paxlovid now has a 90% market share compared to Merck’s molnupiravir in the retail pharmacy, long-term care and U. S. mail order markets. The antiviral is now licensed in more than 60 countries and Pfizer is in talks to bring the remedy to other markets, he said.
Patients who were prescribed Paxlovid take 3 s twice a day for five days. The course includes two nirmatrelvir pills developed through Pfizer and one for ritonavir, a widely used HIV drug. ritonavir slows down the patient’s metabolism so that the drug remains active in the frame for a longer period of time.
While Paxlovid is effective in preventing hospitalization and death in other people who already have covid, it failed to prevent infection with the virus according to clinical trial results published Friday.
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