What you should know about Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill

19 Sep 2022

Is it ever enough for Pfizer? Learn how the company is doing everything to tighten its grip on the production of the COVID-19 pill 💸💊

Pfizer’s Paxlovid, its COVID-19 pill, has shown great results in preventing severe illness and death, possibly alleviating health systems, which is something particularly important in developing countries. However, as much of other COVID-19 technologies, it is only available for a selected few.

And the truth of the matter is COVID-19 is not going away, studies show vaccine immunity waines over time, so we need all resources to be available equally without discrimination. As recently as August, a new wave of cases reached a figure of 6.7 million and a consequent 35% increase in deaths—that’s equivalent to 15 thousand deaths in just one week.

Even with vaccines, we still face huge gaps. While there are countries administering 2nd boosters and securing their Omicron-specific vaccines, many others still haven’t been able to complete the initial protocol. Africa vaccinated only 22.5% of its population. When we look closer, countries like Burundi, DRC, Madagascar, and Senegal have vaccinated even less, with coverage below 10% of their populations.

Effective and cheap therapeutics are critical.