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Africa CDC Seeks COVID-19 Treatment Pills

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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is negotiating with U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer to acquire supplies of antiviral COVID-19 pills.

In November 2021, Pfizer announced that the pills, known as Paxlovid, were 89% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients and that the pill retains its effectiveness against COVID-19’s highly contagious omicron strain.

“We are working hand in hand,” Africa CDC Director Dr. John Nkengasong said during a January 13 media briefing. “We are in close discussions with Pfizer to see what can be done to make the drugs available on the continent.”

Nkengasong has said that obtaining supplies of COVID-19 drugs is a key strategy for combating the pandemic and easing the strain on health systems in 2022. Increasing COVID-19 testing also is a critical element of Africa’s COVID-19 response, Nkengasong said. Antiviral medications are most effective when administered in the first days of infection.

“If you have such drugs, people can test and treat themselves at home and not overwhelm the health system,” Nkengasong told Bloomberg. “That is why treatments are very important.”

The Pfizer pills are taken with the older antiviral ritonavir every 12 hours for five days beginning shortly after the onset of symptoms, Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten told Reuters.

“We’re talking about a staggering number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented,” Dolsten added. “And of course, if you deploy this quickly after infection, we are likely to reduce transmission dramatically.”

Dr. Paul Sax, a Harvard Medical School professor, characterized the results of Paxlovid testing as “very exciting,” Reuters reported.

In November 2021, Pfizer submitted Paxlovid data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.

Paxlovid is in a class of drugs called protease inhibitors that are used to treat HIV, hepatitis C and other viruses. In December 2021, Pfizer agreed to allow generic manufacturers to supply versions of the drug to 95 low- and middle-income countries, although Dolsten said that Pfizer likely would be the pill’s main manufacturer in 2022.

“With the coming of new drugs, it appears it would be possible and recommended to treat even the mild cases,” Abdou Salam Gueye, Africa regional emergency director for the World Health Organization (WHO), said in mid-January 2022.

At the time, the WHO reported that Africa’s fourth COVID-19 wave, driven by omicron, had flattened. Deaths were lower than in previous waves, and hospitalizations remained low.

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