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

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

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

The FDA said that oral medication can be used for the 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 diagnosis of COVID-19 and within five days of symptom onset, the FDA stated. 

South Korea has 445 cases of the Omicron variant

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

Image: AP