Pfizer signs licensing deal with MPP for oral COVID-19 antiviral

US pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) has had enormous success with its COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty, developed and marketed with Germany’s BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX), and is now turning to its oral antiviral to treat the coronavirus infection, Paxlovid (ritonavir), for which it released stunning trial results last week.

Today Pfizer announced a voluntary license agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed public health organization, for Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment candidate PF-07321332, which is administered in combination with low dose ritonavir (PF-07321332 and ritonavir.

The agreement will enable the MPP to facilitate additional production and distribution of the investigational antiviral, pending regulatory authorization or approval, by granting sub-licenses to qualified generic medicine manufacturers, with the goal of facilitating greater access to the global population.

Under the terms of the head license agreement between Pfizer and MPP, qualified generic medicine manufacturers worldwide that are granted sub-licenses will be able to supply PF-07321332 in combination with ritonavir to 95 countries, covering up to approximately 53% of the world’s population. This includes all low- and lower-middle-income countries and some upper-middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as countries that have transitioned from lower-middle to upper-middle-income status in the past five years. Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries and will further waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement while COVID-19 remains classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization.