GENEVA - US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Tuesday announced a deal to make its prospective antiviral Covid-19 pill available more cheaply in the world's least-wealthy countries.

Pfizer will sub-licence production of its promising Paxlovid pill to generic drug manufacturers for supply in 95 low- and middle-income nations covering around 53 percent of the world's population.

Under the deal struck with the global Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), Pfizer -- which also produces one of the most widely-used Covid vaccines with German lab BioNTech -- will not receive royalties from the generic manufacturers, making the treatment cheaper.

The agreement is subject to the oral antiviral medication passing ongoing trials and regulatory approval.

The Pfizer drug is to be taken with the HIV medicine ritonavir.

Interim data from ongoing trials demonstrated an 89 percent reduction in the risk of Covid-19-related hospitalisation or death compared to a placebo, in non-hospitalised high-risk adults with Covid-19 within three days of symptom onset, said Pfizer.

Similar results were seen within five days of symptom onset, it added.

The Geneva-based MPP is a United Nations-backed international organisation that works to facilitate the development of medicines for low- and middle-income nations.

If approved, the pill could be on the market in "a matter of months", MPP policy chief Esteban Burrone told AFP.

Pfizer also said Tuesday that it was seeking an emergency use authorisation, or EUA, in the US for the Covid pill.

AFP