Pfizer’s oral Covid drug to be released next year, says Pfizer CEO

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that an oral drug for treating coronavirus could be ready next year adding the company is working on two antiviral, an oral and an injectable.

During an interview to CNBC, Bourla on Tuesday said, “We are actually on two, one is injectable and the other one an oral (antiviral)… Particularly the attention is on the oral for the world and of us because provides several advantages and one of them is that you don’t need to go to the hospital to get the treatment of which is the case with all the injectables so far but you can get it home.”

The only antiviral currently approved for use against the coronavirus is remdesivir, which is manufactured by Gilead Sciences. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the drug full approval in October after it was granted emergency use authorization in May last year.

He also said the medication could be “way more effective against the multiple variants” of the virus than current options adding that the mechanism of action, of the antiviral, is not expected to be subject to mutations, “particularly because it’s not acting on the spike, as we all know, all the mutations that we are hearing right now are seeing this in the proteins of the spike.”

“This one doesn’t work there so that allows us to believe that will be way more effective against the multiple variants. So, all good news. We are now progressing the studies and we will have more news around summer,” the CEO added.