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Germany confident of emergency authorization of Pfizer anticovid pill this month

The German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, hopes that this month Pfizer’s anticovid pill, called Paxlovid, will be authorized for emergency in Germany for the treatment of serious conditions due to coronavirus and of which the country has already secured a million units . “I trust that until the end of this month we will have closed the necessary package for this, that is, that we have received supplies of the medicine and we have obtained an emergency authorization,” he said in statements to the Sunday edition of world. According to the minister, the Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Devices (BfArM) is currently preparing a national emergency authorization, so that Germany can use Paxlovid even before the European Medicines Authority (EMA) authorizes the pill. Lauterbach added that the Ministry of Health has already closed an agreement with Pfizer for the supply of one million units and the option of receiving an additional million to ensure sufficient predictable coverage. Paxlovid is especially useful for treating at-risk unvaccinated patients, “a large and particularly vulnerable group,” he said. 25.8% of the German population (21.5 million) have not yet been vaccinated: only 4 million are under four years old – 4.8% -, for whom there is still no vaccine. Until the last day of the year, 74.2% of the population (61.7 million people) had been vaccinated, 71.2% (59.2 million) with the full schedule, while 38.7% ( 32.2 million) had already received a booster dose. (Eph)

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