South Korea approves of Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral pill for emergency use to fight COVID

In a major development in fight against Coronavirus, South Korea approved emergency use of Pfizer's oral drug on Monday, Korea Times reported. According to local media outlet, ministry convened a panel of experts from both within and outside country to review safety and efficacy of Pfizer's Paxlovid. Subsequently, panel submitted report to concerned ministry wherein it said that pill performed satisfactorily when scientists tested it on patients suffering from highly infectious virus. safety panel ted that oral pill is needed to deal with public health crisis. With recent approval, Pfizer's Paxlovid became first such pill to be used in country. 

tably, on December 23, US Food and Drug ministration (FDA) has okayed emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Pfizer’s Paxlovid tablets. According to FDA, Paxlovid consists of Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir tablets, co-packd for oral, and can be used for treatment of mild-to-moderate Coronavirus disease in ults and paediatric (12 years of and older weighing at least 40 kilograms) patients. 

FDA said that oral medication can be used for treatment of those who are at high risk for progression to suffer from severe COVID-19, including hospitalisation or death. It should be initiated as soon as possible after a diagsis of COVID-19 and within five days of symptom onset, FDA stated. 

South Korea has 445 cases of Omicron variant

Meanwhile, South Korea's drug safety ncy said that researchers are examining wher oral pill is effective against new COVID variant, Omicron. It is worth mentioning that country has reported 4,207 new COVID-19 infections in past 24 hours, taking total caselo to 6,11,670. As of w, country has a total of 445 cases of Omicron variant. Also, South Korea registered 55 more deaths from COVID pandemic, bringing death toll to 5,300. Korea Disease Control and Prevention ncy (KDCA) ted that number of cases remain high after country reported its first case of Omicron strain on December 7. However, on Monday, country has reported cases below 5,000, for first time since country detected its first Omicron case. ncy informed that Remdesivir, which is developed by Gile Sciences Inc., is only drug that is used to treat critically-ill COVID patients in country.

Im: AP