Efficacy of Pfizer's Covid pill holds up in final analysis, reducing risk of hospitalization or death by almost 90%

The drastic difference in efficacy for Merck’s Covid-19 pill between interim and final analyses — from a 50% relative reduction in hospitalizations and deaths at the interim to just 30% in the final results — had some worrying that the Pfizer pill’s early success for adults at high risk of hospitalization might also be more muted in the final results.

But that wasn’t the case early Tuesday as Pfizer said that final data available from the more than 2,2000 high-risk patients enrolled in its trial confirmed prior results showing Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% (within three days of symptom onset) and 88% (within five days of symptom onset) compared to placebo. The company added: