Pfizer has announced : FDA has approved for emergency use the drug it developed for Corona.

Pfizer has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for emergency use the drug it developed for Corona.
Upon receipt of the approval, the new drug will be available to tens of millions of Americans, vaccinated and unvaccinated, if infected with the virus. The FDA approved the administration of the drug subject to obtaining a doctor's prescription for diagnosed patients, as long as no more than five days had elapsed from the onset of the first symptoms.
According to Pfizer, when the pill was given within three days of the onset of symptoms, the risk of hospitalization and mortality was reduced by 89%, and if the pill was given within five days, the risk dropped in almost the same way to 88%. The results are largely consistent with the company's initial analysis released last month.
 According to Pfizer findings, a pill given five days after the onset of symptoms reduced the risk of hospitalization and mortality by 88%
According to Pfizer, 0.7 percent of the patients who received the drug were hospitalized within 28 days of entering the trial, and no one died. In contrast, 6.5 percent of patients receiving placebo were hospitalized or died. Pfizer also released preliminary data from a separate experiment that examined people at lower risk. These volunteers include vaccinated people who carried a risk factor for a serious illness, as well as unvaccinated patients without risk factors. Among this group of 662 volunteers, Paxelwid reduced the risk of hospitalization and mortality by 70%.
The company has announced that it can start supplying the drug in the US immediately, and that it now intends to accelerate its production with the goal of reaching 120 million doses by 2022. The US administration has so far ordered from Pfizer doses that will suffice for about 10 million patients, at a cost of $ 530 per patient .
Last month, Pfizer announced that the drug it had developed was 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations and mortality among patients at risk, and last week it announced that it was also effective against the Omicron variant. "The drug works against omicron as against any other worrying variant," Pfizer chief scientist Michael Dolsten explained.
Paxlobide is a drug that is given through a pill for five days. It consists of an old drug called ritonavir that was previously developed to treat HIV carriers, and an experimental compound that has been shown to be effective in treating viruses in the laboratory. According to information published by Pfizer last month, about 20% of patients who received the pills or placebo experienced adverse effects, most of them mild. Significant side effects were reported by 1.7% of patients receiving the drug and 6.6% of placebo recipients.
The mechanism of action of Paxlobid is different from that of the other antiviral drugs developed for the treatment of corona - Remedicibir (which is quite low in effectiveness and is given intravenously) and Molenofirab (which has a 50% efficacy in reducing mortality and is given by pill). Both drugs disrupt the genetic replication mechanism of the virus, thereby sabotaging the creation of new viruses that are able to continue the cycle of infection.
Pfizer, one of the leading manufacturers of corona vaccines in the world, donated NIS 8.6 million to medical bodies in Israel in 2020, according to a donation report from the Ministry of Health. This is a 10% increase in donations made by the company compared to 2019, At NIS 7.8 million, a total of NIS 44.7 million since 2012, Pfizer has contributed to the health system in Israel.
Pfizer donated NIS 1.2 million to the Israel Medical Association, and an additional NIS 1.2 million to the Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital Research Fund. Pfizer also donated NIS 840,000 to Carmel Medical Center, NIS 460,000 to the Ne'eman organization, which helps stroke victims, NIS 426,000 to Moore, a medical research company, and NIS 402,000 to Ariel University.
In addition to Pfizer, there were other pharmaceutical companies that donated large sums to bodies in the health system. For example, Bristol Myers donated NIS 9.9 million, Teva donated NIS 8.2 million, and Abway Biopharma donated NIS 4.5 million. In total, the amount of donations reported by the donors is about NIS 75 million - an increase of 2.6% compared to the previous year.