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 The voluntary licensing agreement between Pfizer and the MPP will
allow the United Nations-backed group to grant sub-licenses to
qualified generic drug manufacturers to make their own versions of
PF-07321332. Pfizer will sell the pills it manufactures under the
brand name Paxlovid.
Pfizer, which also makes one of the mostly widely used COVID-19
vaccines, has said the pill cut the chance of hospitalization 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.
Pfizer's licensing deal follows a similar arrangement by rival Merck
& Co for generic manufacturing of its COVID-19 treatment. The deals
are unusual arrangements that acknowledge the dire need for
effective treatments as well as the pressure drugmakers are under to
make their life saving drugs accessible at very low costs.
"We are extremely pleased to have another weapon in our armoury to
protect people from the ravages of COVID-19," Charles Gore,
Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool, said in an
interview.
Gore said he hoped the generic version of Pfizer's drug will be
available within months.
The 95 countries in the license 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 believe oral antiviral treatments can play a vital role in
reducing the severity of COVID-19 infections... 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.
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 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 last week 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.
 Pfizer has said it will sell the supply it produces using a tiered
pricing approach based on the income level of each country. In the
United States, it expects to price its treatment close to where
Merck has priced its drug at around $700 a course.
Merck has license agreements for it COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, in
over 100 countries. Still, some international health officials said
even that is not enough for the medicine to reach many in low- and
middle-income countries in large enough numbers.
(Reporting by Michael Erman and Emma Farge; Editing by David
Gregorio)
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