Pfizer to allow generic versio

Pfizer to allow generic versions of its COVID-19 pill in certain countries. Image: Canva

Pfizer to allow generic versions of its COVID-19 pill in certain countries

A new agreement will allow qualified generic drug manufacturers to make their own versions of Pfizer’s experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill.

Pfizer to allow generic versio

Pfizer to allow generic versions of its COVID-19 pill in certain countries. Image: Canva

Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday (16 November) it will allow generic manufacturers to supply its experimental antiviral COVID-19 pill to 95 low- and middle-income countries through a licensing agreement with international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).

Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill

According to Reuters, the voluntary licensing agreement between Pfizer and the MPP will allow the UN-backed group to grant sub-licences to qualified generic drug manufacturers to make their own versions of the pill.

Pfizer will sell the pills it manufactures under the brand name Paxlovid.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was “disheartened” by the deal which it said was restrictive and excluded countries such as Argentina and China with established capacity for producing generic drugs.

“The world knows by now that access to COVID-19 medical tools needs to be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, if we really want to control this pandemic,” said Yuanqiong Hu, MSF senior legal policy adviser.

Pfizer, which is known for its COVID-19 vaccine, has said the pill cut the chance of hospitalisation or death for adults at risk of severe disease by 89% in its clinical trial. 

The drug will be used in combination with ritonavir, an HIV drug that is already available generically.

They hope that the generic version of Pfizer’s drug would be available within months.

Equal access to COVID-19 vaccines and pills

The 95 countries in the agreement cover around 53% of the world’s population and include all low- and lower-middle-income countries and some upper-middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also include countries that have transitioned from lower-middle to upper-middle-income status in the past five years, Pfizer and the MPP said.

“We must work to ensure that all people – regardless of where they live or their circumstances – have access to these breakthroughs,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said in a statement.

Pfizer will waive royalties on sales in low-income countries. It will also waive them in the other countries covered by the agreement as long as COVID-19 remains classified as a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization.

Pfizer’s version of the drug will be in high demand. The company has said it expects to manufacture 180 000 treatment courses by the end of next month and at least 50 million courses by the end of 2022.

Even so, the drugmaker could be stretched trying to supply 47% of the world’s population. A Pfizer executive said that the market for the drug might be up to 150 million people and that many countries might also be interested in buying doses for their strategic reserves.

The income level of each country

Pfizer has said it will sell the supply it produces using a tiered pricing approach based on the income level of each country.