GENEVA — Nearly three dozen companies around the world will soon start making generic versions of Pfizer’s coronavirus pill, the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Fund that brokered the deal said on Thursday.
The Medicines Patent Pool said in a statement that the deals signed with 35 companies should help make Pfizer’s antiviral drug nirmatrelvir, or Paxlovoid, available to more than half the world’s population.
Generic drugmakers in a dozen countries in Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Eastern Europe will start producing the raw materials for the Pfizer drug or the pill itself. Among the companies that were offered a license was one in Ukraine, which has not yet been able to confirm that it can participate.
“This will make a huge difference for countries.” said Charles Gore, executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool. He said the availability of Pfizer’s drug in some of the world’s poorest countries is especially critical. “They have been at the back of the vaccine line, so having a treatment like this in the arsenal is going to be absolutely critical to preventing deaths.”
Gore estimated that some of the generic companies could be ready to submit their drugs for regulatory approval later this year, with some supplies available in 2023.
Pfizer’s drug has been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death in people at risk of severe COVID-19 by up to 90%; it is also believed to be effective against the omicron variant because it does not target the coronavirus protein, where most of the worrisome mutations are found.
Pfizer Inc. announced that it has launched a phase 2 and 3 clinical trial of its antiviral pill known as Paxlovid in children ages 6 to 17.
Many health experts welcomed the deal but noted loopholes remain. Some countries that have suffered devastating outbreaks of COVID-19, like Brazil, for example, are excluded from the agreement. Under the terms of the deals, Brazilian companies can make Pfizer’s pill, but the generic version will not be available for sale there.
Pfizer will not receive royalties from the sale of its drug by generic companies while the coronavirus pandemic remains classified as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
In January, the Medicines Patent Pool announced a similar deal with Merck, when it signed deals with more than two dozen companies licensed to make its COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir.
So far, none of the companies that make the COVID-19 vaccines have agreed to work with the group to allow other manufacturers to make their vaccines.
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