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PFIZER TODAY SAID it had begun a middle-to-late stage clinical trial of a pill to stave off Covid in people who are exposed to infection.
Several companies are working on so-called oral antivirals, which would mimic what the drug Tamiflu does for influenza and prevent the disease from progressing to severe.
“We believe that tackling the virus will require effective treatments for people who contract, or have been exposed to, the virus, complementing the impact that vaccines have had,” said Mikael Dolsten, the company’s chief scientific officer.
Pfizer started developing its drug, called PF-07321332, in March 2020 and is testing it in combination with ritonavir, a repurposed HIV medicine.
The clinical trial will enroll 2,660 adults who will take part at the first signs of Covid infection or at first awareness of exposure.
They will be randomly assigned to receive either a combination of PF-07321332 and ritonavir, or a placebo twice a day for five or ten days.
The objective is to assess the safety and efficacy of the drugs being studied at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic disease by day 14.
Other companies are also testing existing oral antivirals against Covid — but Pfizer’s is the first specifically designed against the coronavirus.
It is known as a “protease inhibitor” and has been shown in lab testing to jam up the virus’ replication machinery.
If it works in real life, it will likely only be effective at the early stages of infection.
By the time Covid progresses to severe disease, the virus has largely stopped replicating and patients suffer from an over-active immune response.
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Didn’t they only say just last week that we were doing fantastically well?
Cut the ESRI altogether….that should save a good few bob !!!!!!!!
Yeah, if we get rid of all the people saying we need to close the gap between governent spending and revenue then maybe it’ll all just go away.
The ESRI do not exactly have a credible record as economic advisors.
Yes if we cut the ERSI from the public purse maybe they might start getting it right in the world of sink or swim.
Yes daniel they did but that was last week :-)
its only an extra 400 million say it fast doesn’t sound much …
Down with that sorta thing
Careful now
How can u cut more and more and expect growth ,, it just doesnt make sense
What do you want us to do, follow the examples of Germany and Holland, who are still performing reasonably well and have low debt.
FG/FF will never do that, and their excellent track record of only bankrupting the state 4 times in 90 years is proof of that.
Absolutely nothing is being done at the moment for the domestic economy, indeed August has been the worst month to date for company insolvencies. The SME’s, the domestic economy are dying, but then again they are only with the rest of the little people and are well below the concern of FG/FF. Always have been, always will be.
What kind of salaries are ESRI academics on? Wasn’t it one of the cheerleaders of a ‘soft landing’? More calls for a tow from the Titanic.
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