Pfizer’s At-Home COVID-19 Treatment Possibly Ready by Year-End, Says CEO

Pfizer’s investigational antiviral for treating COVID-19 at home at the first onset of symptoms could become available by the end of this year, said the company’s CEO Albert Bourla.

Being able to take a pill at home for SARS-CoV-2 would be a “game changer,” Bourla said in a TV interview. When asked about a reasonable timeframe for the therapeutic to make it through phase 3 testing and become available, he said, “If all goes well . . . I hope by the end of the year.”

Pfizer, the first company to get FDA Emergency Use Authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine, co-developed with BioNTech, in December, began an early stage trial in March on a protease inhibitor. The drug works by inhibiting an enzyme that the virus requires in order to replicate itself in cells. The novel drug candidate, PF-07321332, is the first orally administered COVID-19-specific investigational protease inhibitor to be evaluated in clinical studies, according to Pfizer.

Pfizer is also testing an antiviral that is injected intravenously.

In addition to the new drugs to treat COVID-19, Pfizer continues testing its vaccine in 6-month to 11-year-old kids, and earlier this month, asked the FDA to expand its vaccine authorization to adolescents ages 12 to 15. — Suz Redfearn