{"id":66168,"date":"2021-03-24T16:30:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T22:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66168"},"modified":"2021-03-24T16:30:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T22:30:38","slug":"66168","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66168","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Pfizer begins testing oral antiviral drug in U.S. to treat COVID-19.<\/a><\/p>\n

March 23 (UPI) —<\/span>\u00a0Pfizer announced Tuesday it’s beginning a U.S.-based early-stage study of an oral antiviral drug to treat\u00a0COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The antiviral candidate, called PF-07321332, is what’s known as a protease inhibitor and could be prescribed to patients showing the first signs of a COVID-19 infection. The pharmaceutical company said the antiviral clinical candidate might be able to address future coronavirus threats, as well<\/p>\n

“Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic requires both prevention via vaccine and targeted treatment for those who contract the virus,” Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, development and medical at Pfizer,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Given the way that [the virus] 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.”<\/p>\n

The Phase 1 trial will involve health adults to evaluate safety and tolerability of the drug.<\/p>\n

Protease inhibitors work by binding to a viral enzyme, preventing a virus from replicating inside a cell. Such therapeutics have been used to treat\u00a0HIV<\/a>\u00a0and hepatitis C.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Food and Drug Administration<\/a>\u00a0has already granted emergency use authorization to the antiviral remdesivir to treat COVID-19. It was developed to treat the Ebola virus.<\/p>\n

Former President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0was given multiple doses of the drug after he was hospitalized in October. The World Health Organization has since\u00a0recommended against<\/a>\u00a0using remdesivir in COVID-19 patients because it said it’s had “no meaningful effect on mortality” or other outcomes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the results of a\u00a0Phase 2 trial<\/a>\u00a0of an experimental hepatitis D antiviral drug showed that it appears to speed recovery times for non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Those given peginterferon-lambda were four times as likely to have cleared the COVID-19 infection within seven days compared to those who received a placebo.<\/p>\n

Pfizer, in its partnership with BioNTech, received the FDA’s first emergency use authorization for a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in late 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pfizer begins testing oral antiviral drug in U.S. to treat COVID-19. March 23 (UPI) —\u00a0Pfizer announced Tuesday it’s beginning a U.S.-based early-stage study of an oral antiviral drug to treat\u00a0COVID-19. The antiviral candidate, called PF-07321332, is what’s known as a protease inhibitor and could be prescribed to patients showing the first signs of a COVID-19 … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66169,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66168\/revisions\/66169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}