BERLIN (Reuters) – Pfizer plans to apply for a European authorisation of its experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 on Friday, German weekly Wirtschaftswoche said, citing sources close to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the company.
The paper also said that acting German health minister Jens Spahn plans to buy Pfizer’s medicine. “The health ministry is in contact with Pfizer regarding a possible procurement of the antiviral drug Paxlovid,” Wirtschaftswoche quoted a ministry’s spokesperson as saying.
Pfizer has said that the pill cuts by 89% the chance of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of severe disease.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, editing by Thomas Escritt)
