![Pfizer: soon a preventive pill against Covid-19?](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2021-09-28/pilule-covid-19-pfizer-traitement-coronavirus.jpeg)
After the anti-Covid vaccine, Pfizer could well be the first to develop a treatment taken as prevention against the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus. The laboratory has just announced the launch of clinical trials on humans.
What is the point of taking a preventive drug when there are vaccines?
The American laboratory Pfizer was the first to market its messenger RNA vaccine against Covid-19. At the same time, scientists have been working since the start of the epidemic to develop a treatment. On Monday, September 27, the pharmaceutical giant announced the start of phase 2/3 clinical trials for its preventive pill against the disease. The molecule should make it possible to limit the risk of infection by preventing the multiplication of the virus.
The stake is twofold, because this treatment would succeed on the one hand in reducing the symptoms of Covid-19, especially the most serious, in people already infected with the virus. On the other hand, the drug could allow a person who has been in contact with a sick person not to develop the disease.
The molecule should be taken orally in addition to anti-Covid vaccines, as indicated by Mikael Dolsten, scientific director at Pfizer.
How does the drug work?
The treatment is called PF-07321332. On March 23, Pfizer began its phase 1 clinical trial to assess the tolerance and safety of this drug in patients. The molecule is a protease inhibitor, that is to say, it blocks the action of the enzyme, which itself is responsible for the replication of the coronavirus within cells. This technique is already used to fight against other viruses, such as HIV, which causes AIDS.
To complete its clinical trial, Pfizer plans to recruit more than 2,600 volunteers aged 18 or over. Some of them will receive the treatment, which will be given to them for 5 to 10 days twice a day. As for the others, they will receive a placebo (substance without active principle). It would also appear that the molecule is given in association with a ” low dose Of ritonavir treatment, which is indicated to fight the AIDS virus.
In parallel, another clinical trial is underway by the same laboratory to test an antiviral administered intravenously. It is only given to patients who are hospitalized or at risk for a severe form of Covid-19.