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Pfizer First: Oral Antiviral Paxlovid Wins EUA As Merck’s COVID Pill Languishes At US FDA

 
• By Sue Sutter

Authorized for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in patients 12 and older at high risk for severe disease, Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) jumped ahead of Merck & Co./Ridgeback’s molnupiravir in the EUA queue for oral antivirals, with the latter possibly hung up by efficacy and safety concerns.

Crossing finish line
Pfizer beat Merck & Co./Ridgeback to the EUA finish line for COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments. • Source: Alamy

The speed with which the US Food and Drug Administration reviewed and authorized Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid may say as much about the agency’s confidence in the antiviral as it does about concerns with Merck & Co., Inc.’s oral antiviral molnupiravir, which was submitted weeks earlier and appears to still be under review.

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