The American company Pfizer has agreed to produce and sell its experimental drug for the treatment of Covid-19 in 95 developing countries. Iran and Afghanistan are also among these countries.
The agreement, signed with an organization called MPP, will make the drug available to 53% of the world’s population. The Medicines Patent Pool operates in Geneva, Switzerland with the support of the United Nations.
But several countries where the Kuwaiti outbreak is severe, including Brazil, are not covered by the agreement.
The pharmaceutical company says Covid-19 pills reduce the risk of severe symptoms in vulnerable adults.
Pfizer said in a statement on Tuesday that the new deal would allow local drugmakers to produce the pill “with the aim of facilitating greater access for the world’s population”. Pfizer will not receive the right to manufacture the drug in low-income countries, and said it will not receive the right to manufacture it in all countries covered by the agreement until Covid is considered an emergency by the World Health Organization.
Pfizer said in early November that the company’s Covid-19 pill, called Paxlovid, had reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in high-risk adults by 89 percent in clinical trials.
The new license is important because “this oral drug is especially suitable for low- and middle-income countries and can play a vital role in saving lives,” said Charles Gore, director of MPP, in a statement. Most of the countries covered by this agreement are in Africa or Asia. However, countries such as Brazil, China, Russia, Argentina and Thailand, which have seen widespread outbreaks, are not part of it.
