(GENEVA) – Nearly three dozen companies worldwide will soon start producing generic versions of Pfizer’s coronavirus pill, says the United Nations-backed Drug Patent Organization that negotiated the deal. on Thursday.
The Drug Patent Foundation said in a statement that agreements signed with 35 companies will help make Pfizer’s antiviral drug nirmatrelvir, or Paxlovid, available to more than half of the world’s population.
Conventional drug manufacturers across dozens of countries in Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Eastern Europe will begin producing raw materials for the Pfizer drug or the pill itself. Among the companies that have been offered licenses is one in Ukraine, which has yet to confirm whether it can participate.
“This will make a huge difference for countries.” Charles Gore, executive director of the Drug Patent Foundation. The availability of Pfizer in some of the world’s poorest countries is particularly important, he said. “They’re already at the bottom of the vaccine queue, so having a treatment like this in the arsenal will be absolutely critical to preventing deaths.”
Gore estimates that some generics could be ready to submit their drugs for regulatory approval later this year, with some supplies available by 2023.
Pfizer drug has been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by up to 90% in people at severe risk of COVID-19; it is also believed to be effective against the omicron variant because it does not target the mutant protein of the coronavirus, where most of the worrying mutations are located.
Many medical experts welcomed the agreement, but pointed out that there are still gaps. Some countries that have suffered devastating COVID-19 outbreaks, such as Brazil, are excluded from the agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Brazilian companies can produce Pfizer tablets, but the generic version will not be sold there.
Pfizer will not receive royalties from the sale of its drugs by companies in general as long as the coronavirus pandemic remains classified as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
In January, the Drug Patent Foundation announced a similar agreement with Merckwhen it entered into agreements with more than two dozen companies licensed to manufacture its COVID pill, molnupiravir.
To date, no company that makes a COVID-19 vaccine has agreed to work with the group to allow other manufacturers to produce their vaccines.
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