Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced today that the FDA has approved their COVID-19 vaccine for adults ages 65 and older and individuals from 5 to 64 years old who have at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19. The approval comes amidst the development of a…
FDA and Pfizer differ in interpreting Paxlovid treatment recommendations
Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla recently said that patients who relapse after completing a course of the COVID-19 antiviral Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) could continue taking the drug. “Paxlovid does what it has to do: it reduces the viral load,” Bourla told Bloomberg. “Then your body is supposed to do the job.” “While the…
BMJ op-ed calls molnupiravir authorization ‘premature’
A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) criticized the decisions of British and U.S. health regulators to authorize the use of the antiviral molnupiravir, the COVID-19 antiviral. The developers of the drug, Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, had announced that molnupiravir lowered the risk of hospital admissions or death by roughly 50% in…