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Pfizer vs. Merck: A Look at the Two New Covid Pill Treatments
Pfizer vs. Merck: A Look at the Two New Covid Pill Treatments
06 Nov 2021, 02:26 PM IST 
A PandemicProof Productions employee hold a "Please Wear Your Mask" sign during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021. (Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. released data on its experimental Covid pill Friday that suggest a potential challenge to molnupiravir, the drug from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP that’s already been cleared for use in the U.K.
While the Pfizer pill showed an 89% reduction in hospitalization or death in high-risk Covid-19-infected individuals, and Merck’s showed a 50% reduction, “we can’t yet compare the two until the risk profile of the patients is clearer,” according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli.
Here are a few facts that we can put side-by-side until the data are analyzed further:
| Pfizer’s Paxlovid | Merck’s molnupiravir/Lagevrio | |
|---|---|---|
| Dosage | Twice daily for five days | Twice daily for five days |
| Production | Expects to make 180,000 packs by end of year and at least 50 million packs by end of 2022 | Expects to produce 10 million courses by end of the year, has licensed to generic-drug firms, and planning production increases |
| Regulatory status | Plans to add clinical data to rolling U.S. application for authorization | Approved in the U.K., submitted for U.S. authorization |
| Mechanism of action | protease inhibitor | viral mutagenic |
| SOURCE: | Company data |
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