Pfizer plans to seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the drug this month, and if approved, Pfizer could deliver it this year.

Pfizer pointed out that this clinical trial was conducted on 1,219 unvaccinated adults who started taking Paxlovid within three to five days of the onset of symptoms of infection. The results showed that the hospitalization rate was significantly reduced. A protease in Paxlovid binds to the virus and can effectively prevent the virus. Self-replication, some drugs for the treatment of AIDS also have a similar mechanism of action.

Experimental data show that only 0.8% of infected people who took drugs within three days of infection were admitted to hospital for treatment, and no one died. In the placebo-treated control group, 7% of those infected were hospitalized or died and started taking the drug on the fifth day, with similar results. Pfizer said the results were highly statistically significant.

Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, commented that the above news is a real game-changer in the global effort to contain the devastation of infectious diseases and, if approved or authorized, could not only save patients' lives. life, reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections, and eliminate up to 90% of hospitalizations.

Medical experts also believe that if oral therapeutic drugs come out, it will become a "game changer" to change the global pandemic pattern of the new crown. Because if you have early symptoms of new coronary pneumonia, you can simply take it at home without going to the hospital.

Under the influence of this news, Pfizer Pharma soared 10% in premarket trading.

Except Pfizer, other anti-epidemic stocks tumbled

In addition to Pfizer's rise, vaccine-related stocks Moderna, Novavax, BioNTech SE, Merck, and AstraZeneca all fell to varying degrees.

Because it is expected that if Pfizer's anti-new crown oral drug is successfully launched, it will undoubtedly subvert the new crown treatment method with its ultra-high effectiveness that can reduce the probability of hospitalization or death of mild and moderate patients by 89% (much higher than Merck's 50%). , will become the oral antiviral drug of ***3CL protease inhibitor.

After the news came out, Moderna plummeted by more than 16%, and its market value evaporated by 20 billion US dollars in a single day. Moderna announced on Thursday that it lowered its 2021 new crown vaccine sales guidance to $15 billion to $18 billion, compared with an earlier forecast of $20 billion.

Novavax Pharmaceuticals plunged 12%, evaporating nearly $2 billion in market value in a single day.

AstraZeneca fell more than 2%, evaporating nearly $6 billion in market value. AstraZeneca once announced that its experimental new crown antibody cocktail drug (AZD7442) can reduce the risk of severe illness or death by 50%.

Another anti-epidemic concept leader, Merck, fell nearly 10% at the opening, and its market value evaporated by more than 22 billion US dollars. Merck has said that the oral antiviral drug monupavir developed with its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics can reduce the risk of death by 50% in patients with mild to moderate new crowns.

Vaccines to prevent infection and suppress severe aggravation, coupled with oral anti-coronavirus drugs that can be quickly treated in the event of infection, will give mankind hope this time to completely defeat the cunning and changeable new corona virus and turn the current global anti-epidemic situation in one fell swoop. , even to end the pandemic.

Pfizer expects to produce 180,000 doses by the end of 2021 and 50 million by the end of next year, including 21 million oral doses in the first half of next year.

The oral new crown drugs of Pfizer and Merck are both small molecule new crown drugs. From the perspective of global progress, Merck is moving faster. On November 4, local time, Merck announced that monupavir has been approved in the United Kingdom for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate new coronary pneumonia who have been diagnosed and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Patients had at least one risk factor for developing severe disease.