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 The Paxlovid medication was nearly 90% effective in preventing
hospitalisations and deaths, and data suggested it retains its
effectiveness against the Omicron variant, Pfizer has said.
"We are in really close discussions with Pfizer to see what can be
done to make the drugs available on the continent and accessible on
the continent, that is, the Paxlovid drugs," said John Nkengasong,
director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Governments around the world are scrambling to buy Paxlovid, while
Merck's Molnupiravir has faced setbacks after disappointing trial
data.
While vaccines have been governments' main weapon against COVID-19,
there are hopes Merck and Pfizer's experimental pills - taken at
home rather than in hospital or medical centres - could be key in
reducing the chances of dying or hospitalisation for those most at
risk of severe illness.
Nkengasong said obtaining supplies of COVID-19 drugs was one of
three key strategies for combating the pandemic in Africa in 2022,
along with scaling up vaccinations and testing.
Such drugs would be crucial if another highly transmissible variant
were to emerge and public health systems become overwhelmed, he
said.
"The only way to relieve that will be if we have drugs like Paxlovid
where people can take that drug and stay home and get relief, and
that way the burden and the constraints on the health system will be
limited," Nkengasong told an online news briefing.
While wealthy countries, including the United States and Britain,
have secured deals to buy the pills, concerns have grown that
low-income countries would lag in this effort due to tight supplies,
as was the case in the scramble for vaccines.
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 The U.S. government's contract
for 10 million courses of the drug is priced at
$530 per course, a price that would put it out
of reach for many poorer countries.
To mitigate that issue, Pfizer has agreed to allow generic
manufacturers to supply versions of the treatment to 95 low- and
middle-income countries through a licensing agreement with
international public health group Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
Africa has officially recorded just over 10 million cases of
COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, although the real number
is likely much higher due to patchy testing.
Nkengasong said 10% of Africans were fully vaccinated.
Addressing a separate briefing, a senior official from the World
Health Organization's Africa office said it appeared that a fourth
infection wave on the continent driven by Omicron was flattening,
marking the shortest surge in cases to date.
"It is (a) plateau ... but we are careful and we are observing for
the upcoming couple of weeks to make sure," said the WHO regional
emergency director Abdou Salam Gueye.
(Writing by Estelle Shirbon;Editing by Angus MacSwan and Bernadette
Baum)
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