Pfizer plans to make 80m doses of its new Covid pill

CEO confident the drug would be unaffected by the Omicron variant

Mon, 29 Nov, 2021 - 16:25

Pfizer now expects to manufacture 80m treatment courses of its experimental Covid-19 antiviral drug, up from a previous forecast of 50m, chief executive officer Albert Bourla said in a CNBC interview on Monday.

Earlier this month, Pfizer said it expects to manufacture 180,000 treatment courses by the end of this year and at least 50m courses by the end of next year, including 21m in the first half of 2022.

"We can right now commit to 80m doses... thanks to our manufacturing machine," Mr Bourla told CNBC.

Unaffected by Omicron

Mr Bourla said he was confident that the drug, with the brand name Paxlovid, would be unaffected by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, adding that the company would know more details about the new variant in the next few weeks.

Pfizer applied for emergency authorisation of Paxlovid in the US last week after reporting data showing that it was 89% effective at preventing hospitalisation or death in at-risk people.

Separately, Pfizer and BioNTech had said last week that, if necessary, they expect to be able to ship a new vaccine tailored to the emerging Omicron variant in around 100 days.

On Sunday, the top US infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci, told US president Joe Biden it will take about two weeks to have definitive information on Omicron.