A Pfizer's pill called Paxlovid is manufactured in Ascoli, Italy, in this handout photo.
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, told CNBC on Wednesday that the company will submit full data on its Covid treatment pill to the FDA in the coming days.
Interim data from the clinical trials showed that the oral antiviral pill, Paxlovid, reduces hospitalization and death by 89%. Paxlovid is taken with ritonavir.
Bourla told CNBC that they would have the full set in a few days. We will submit them. The data that we submit will be similar to what we saw in the first part of the study. I don't think we will have a difference when we unblind the data.
Pfizer applied to the FDA for emergency approval of the treatment. The FDA has a very high sense of urgency and Bourla believes they will make a decision this month.
The pill would be available to the public after the FDA approves it. The product will be available this month if it is approved, the CEO told CNBC.
President Joe Biden said last month that the U.S. will have 10 million courses of Paxlovid by the end of the year.
Bourla told CNBC he doesn't expect omicron to affect the pill's effectiveness because it works differently than vaccines. Paxlovid is able to fight the virus by disrupting anidase it needs to replicate, whereas the vaccines target a spikeprotein the virus uses to invade human cells.
The spikeProtein has changed significantly across the different Viruses, making it more transmissible and more severe. The vaccines that target the spike may need to be updated.
Bourla told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that it is very difficult for the virus to evolve in a way where it doesn't need the protease that Pfizer's pill targets.
It is difficult for the virus to create a strain that can live without this protease. It is not impossible. It is very difficult.
The FDA's advisory panel narrowly endorsed the oral antiviral pill, molnupiravir, last month. Panel members were worried about unanswered questions about molnupiravir.
The pill was 50% effective at preventing hospitalization and death, but the data showed it was just 30% effective.
The FDA should consider withdrawing emergency authorization if another treatment becomes available, according to several members of the advisory panel. The FDA has not made a final decision.
