Pfizer asks Brazil’s health regulator for emergency use of drug for complications of Covid

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Pfizer says it has requested from ANVISA the emergency use of the drug tofacitinib to treat patients who had pneumonia caused by covid-19.

The pharmaceutical company has been conducting clinical trials with the drug in conjunction with Albert Einstein Hospital in 15 Brazilian medical centers. According to Pfizer, the medication was tested in 289 patients who had pneumonia caused by covid-19.

“The research showed that among adult patients admitted with pneumonia resulting from Covid-19, tofacitinib led to a lower risk of death or respiratory failure,” Pfizer said in a statement about the comparison of the drug with placebos. “Used by physicians at the right time, it has the potential to prevent respiratory failure in patients,” explains Márjori Dulcine, medical director of Pfizer Brazil.

Currently, the medication, which goes by the trade name Xeljanz, is already approved in Brazil to treat other diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ulcerative colitis.

The data from the test conducted by Pfizer in the country were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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