TOKYO : Drugmaker Shionogi & Co. said it plans to seek approval this month to sell its Covid-19 treatment pill in Japan after the company found that in human trials the pill had strong virus-fighting ability compared with Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid.
Shionogi acknowledged that studies of its drug are much smaller than Pfizer’s and have yet to prove effectiveness in preventing serious Covid-19 cases.
Pfizer said its final-stage trial, which included more than 2,000 patients, showed Paxlovid cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% if patients took the pill within three days of diagnosis.
Still, Shionogi said it believed its trials to date, covering about 400 mostly Japanese patients, would offer sufficient evidence to seek approval in Japan, where the Pfizer drug is expected to be approved shortly, but is likely to be in limited supply.