Covid pill remains effective against severe disease, Omicron variant: Pfizer

WASHINGTON: Pfizer said on Tuesday that its experimental COVID-19 pill appears effective against the Omicron variant.

The company also said full results of its 2,250-person study confirmed the pill's promising early results against the virus: The drug reduced combined hospitalisations and deaths by about 89% among high-risk adults when taken shortly after initial COVID-19 symptoms.

Separate laboratory testing shows the drug retains its potency against the Omicron variant, the company announced, as many experts had predicted. Pfizer tested the antiviral drug against a man-made version of a key protein that Omicron uses to reproduce itself. The updates come as COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalisation are all rising again and the US hovers around 800,000 pandemic deaths. The latest surge, driven by the Delta variant, is accelerating due to colder weather and more indoor gatherings, even as health officials brace for the impact of the emerging Omicron mutant.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to soon rule on whether to authorise Pfizer's pill and a competing pill from Merck, which was submitted to regulators several weeks earlier. If granted, the pills would be the first COVID-19 treatments that Americans could pick up at a pharmacy and take at home.

Pfizer's data could help reassure regulators of its drug's benefit after Merck disclosed smaller-than-expected benefits for its drug in final testing. Late last month, Merck said that its pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by 30% in high-risk adults.

Both companies initially studied their drugs in unvaccinated adults who face the gravest risks from COVID-19, due to older age or health problems, such as asthma or obesity.

Pfizer is also studying its pill in lower-risk adults — including a subset who are vaccinated — but reported mixed data for that group on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, according to a large-scale analysis in South Africa released on Tuesday, it has been noted that a two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination provides just 33 per cent protection against infection by the Omicron variant but 70 per cent protection against hospitalisation.

The first large-scale analysis of vaccine effectiveness in the region where the new variant was discovered appears to support early indications that Omicron is more easily transmissible and that the Pfizer shot isn't as effective in protecting against infection as it was against the Delta variant.

The analysis was based on more than 211,000 positive COVID-19 test results, 41 per cent from adults who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. About 78,000 of these positive COVID-19 test results between November 15 and December 7 were attributed to Omicron infections.

The study was carried out by Discovery Health, South Africa's largest private health insurer, and the South African Medical Research Council.