Pfizer
Pfizer expects to start supplying the treatment courses, which include Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir) and a widely used HIV drug (ritonavir), starting next month and will continue to supply to UNICEF throughout 2022, pending regulatory authorization or approval and country-specific needs, according to the company. Low-income nations will be able to purchase the pills at cost while upper-middle-income countries will buy the drug under a tiered pricing system, Pfizer said.
The agreement includes 95 low- and middle-income countries, accounting for about 53% of the world's population, with the goal of providing short-term access to the treatment as the company works to establish generic manufacturing, according to Pfizer. The company has licensed Paxlovid through the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which allows 35 companies to manufacture a generic, low-cost version of the COVID treatment for distribution. These companies--which have agreed to either produce the raw ingredients or manufacture the finished drug--are located in 12 nations across Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.
The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
"We have seen the negative impacts of COVID-19 in every part of the world and know that we must work towards access for all people regardless of where they live or their circumstances," said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in a press statement. "Supplying to UNICEF is an important part of our comprehensive strategy to accelerate access to PAXLOVID to treat COVID-19 infection as quickly as possible and at an affordable price in order to decrease the strain on healthcare systems and help save lives in low- and middle-income countries."
Pfizer's antiviral treatment is designed to be taken as soon as possible after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, with the treatment being 89% effective at preventing hospitalization or death when taken three or five days of symptom onset, according to the company's clinical analysis. The treatment consists of two nimatrelivir pills and one ritonavir tablet taken twice a day for five days. Nimatrelivir works by inhibiting an enzyme the SARS-CoV-2 virus needs to replicate in the body, while ritonavir slows the patients metabolism to allow nimatrlivir to remain active longer.
Pfizer expects to garner $22 billion in Paxlovid sales in 2022, according to previous projections based on deals already signed or close to finalization. The company has agreed to supply 20 million treatment course to the Biden administration through September.
Unlike Paxlovid, Pfizer has not licensed its COVID-19 vaccine for generic manufacturing, but expects to supply 2 billion doses of its two-shot vaccine to poorer nations by the end of this year.
