Oral pills for Covid might be available by the end of this year

New York : The Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, an US-based pharmaceutical major, Albert Bourla exclaimed that the Covid-19 oral antiviral pill that the company is manufacturing is in its early stage of trials and is deemed to get ready by the year end, according to the media.

As per CNBC, the company that was successful enough in developing the first authorised Covid-19 vaccine in the US in collaboration with BioNTech, the German drug manufacturer, in the month of March the early-stage clinical trial for the new antiviral therapy for Covid-19 started.

The medicine forms a part of the protease inhibitors, a class of medicines and functions by inhibiting an enzyme that the virus needs to replicate in the human cells.

Bourla reported to CNBC, “If clinical trials go well and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves it, the drug could be distributed across the US by the end of the year”.

According to the report, protease inhibitors are used in the treatment of another viral pathogen that includes HIV and hepatitis C.

In the previous month, the pharmaceutical major asked the US Food and drug Administration (FDA) to expand the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for its Covid-19 vaccine by including kids within the age group of 12-15 years.

Such an appeal comes after a day Pfizer publicised its data that its vaccine was 100% effective and the younger age group can easily tolerate it.

Pfizer is also trying to come up with a vaccine for children aged in between 6 months – 11 years.

A study that was published in the journal Science pointed out that a single shot of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus may help in boosting the immunity against the Covid-19 strain, only in the ones who had a previous infection with the virus.

The study stated that the immune response to the strain might not be up to the mark if you are not previously infected and have received a single vaccine dose.