Pharmaceutical company Pfizer is testing a potential treatment for Covid-19 and according to its CEO Albert Bourla, the experimental oral drug could be available by the end of the year.
Bourla told local media that clinical trials are underway for the pill that can be ingested orally at home to combat Covid-19 when illness is first detected.
If that goes well and the Food and Drug Administration approves it, the COVID-19 pill could be distributed across the US by the end of the year, the report added.
This comes after a report said that up to 60 volunteers, all clean-living adults aged between 18 and 60, are being given the antiviral drug at two Pfizer locations, one in the US and the other in Belgium.
“Tackling the Covid-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contract the virus,” said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, in a statement.
“Given the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and the continued global impact of Covid-19, it appears likely that it will be critical to have access to therapeutic options both now and beyond the pandemic.”
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“We have designed PF-07321332 as a potential oral therapy that could be prescribed at the first sign of infection, without requiring that patients are hospitalized or in critical care. At the same time, Pfizer’s intravenous antiviral candidate is a potential novel treatment option for hospitalized patients.
Together, the two have the potential to create an end to end treatment paradigm that complements vaccination in cases where disease still occurs.”
