FDA Authorizes Pfizer’s Paxlovid, First Oral Therapy for COVID-19

Given within three days of symptom onset, the pill combination was nearly 90 percent effective at preventing high-risk patients from developing severe illness in a clinical study.

Written byJef Akst

| 2 min read

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Update (December 23): The US Food and Drug Administration today issued an emergency use authorization for Merck’s oral antiviral drug molnupiravir for non-severe COVID-19 disease cases in high-risk adults when no alternative treatments are available.

The US Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday (December 22) an emergency use authorization of Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviral pill regimen, for treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The drug is the first orally administered option available for the disease, and comes as the Omicron variant, now dominant in the US, is proving resistant to some of the antibody therapies currently in use for COVID-19.

“This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19,” Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
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Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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