Pfizer Covid Pill Reduces Hospitalization/Death: Study

Pfizer says it will submit new data as part of its rolling Emergency Use Authorization request for its Covid-19 oral antiviral Paxlovid (ritonavir) that showed the drug significantly reduced hospitalization and death. The data come from an interim analysis of the Phase 2/3 EPIC-HR (Evaluation of Protease Inhibition for COVID-19 in High-Risk Patients) study of non-hospitalized adult patients with Covid-19, who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness. Pfizer says the “scheduled interim analysis showed an 89% reduction in risk of Covid-19-related hospitalization or death from any cause compared to placebo in patients treated within three days of symptom onset (primary endpoint); 0.8% of patients who received Paxlovid were hospitalized through Day 28 following randomization (3/389 hospitalized with no deaths), compared to 7% of patients who received placebo and were hospitalized or died (27/385 hospitalized with seven subsequent deaths).”