Oral medication for COVID-19 is protease inhibitor: Pfizer CEO

Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla has said that the oral medication for COVID-19 that his company is working on is a protease inhibitor.

Bourla was speaking with CNBC‘s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

According to the CNBC exclusive interview’s unofficial transcript US and Global News received from NBCUniversal, the owner of CNBC, show co-host Joe Kernen had asked: “Albert, in a New York paper, it’s the Post, COVID cure may be ready this year from a Pfizer drug it’s a, it’s a, you know which one I’m talking about PF-07321332 is what it said but it prevents a replication of COVID in the nose and it could be an oral medication and they’re calling it a cure, could be ready next year. Is that headline accurate?”

Confirming the accuracy of the headline, Bourla revealed Pfizer is working on two variants.

“…one is injectable and the other one as you just said it is an oral,” replied Bourla.

The Pfizer CEO stated the world is more interested in the oral medication for COVID-19 because it has “several advantages and one of them is that you don’t need to go to the hospital to get the treatment…”

“That could be a game changer,” said Bourla.

He then said, “The compound that we are talking about and you said very well the numbers, it is a protease inhibitor.”

According to Merriam-Webster, a protease inhibitor is “a substance that inhibits the action of a protease.” The dictionary explains that specifically it is “any of various drugs (as indinavir or saquinavir) that inhibit the action of HIV protease so that cleavage of viral proteins into mature infectious particles is prevented and that are used especially in combination with other antiretroviral agents in the treatment of HIV infection.”

Britannica explains that protease inhibitor is a “class of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV retrovirus infection in AIDS patients,” adding that “Protease inhibitors are characterized by their ability to block activation of an HIV enzyme called protease. The protease enzyme is involved in the synthesis of new viral particles, which can lead to the spread of HIV to uninfected cells. However, in the presence of a protease inhibitor HIV produces only noninfectious viral particles. Examples of protease inhibitors include ritonavir, saquinavir, and indinavir.”

Bourla said the molecule can be combined with classes other than this type of class.

“The good thing is that this is also the first molecule that is coming from this type of class, this is good thing because you can combine it with other classes,” he said.

Saying that because it does not act on the spike protein of the novel coronavirus, the Pfizer chairman stated that he does not expect his company’s oral medication for COVID-19 to be subject to mutations.

“Also, the mechanism of action, it is such that it’s not expected to be subject to mutations, particularly because it’s not acting on the spike, as we all know, all the mutations that we are hearing right now are seeing this in the proteins of the spike,” said Bourla. “This one doesn’t work there so that allows us to believe that will be way more effective against the multiple variants.”

The CEO ended his answer by saying Pfizer will have more news on that around summer.

“So, all good news,” he said. “We are now progressing the studies and we will have more news around summer.”

Watch the full interview on CNBC’s website, here.