“With more than 5 million deaths and countless lives impacted by this devastating disease globally, there is an urgent need for life-saving treatment options,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement this month. “The overwhelming efficacy achieved in our recent clinical study of PAXLOVID, and its potential to help save lives and keep people out of the hospital if authorized, underscores the critical role that oral antiviral therapies could play in the battle against COVID-19.”
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The Pfizer logo is displayed at world headquarters in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File / AP Newsroom)
A similar oral pill developed by Pfizer competitor Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics was endorsed in a vote of 13-10 by an FDA panel on Tuesday.
Currently, all COVID-19 treatments used in the U.S. require an IV or injection.
Fox News’ Breck Dumas and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
