Pfizer Chief Says Oral Drug For COVID-19 Could Be Ready Next Year: Report

"If all goes well, and we implement the same speed that we are, and if regulators do the same, and they are, I hope that by the end of the year," Albert Bourla added.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said that an oral drug for treating coronavirus could be ready next year, adding that the company is working on two antivirals, an oral and an injectable. "We are actually on two, one is injectable and the other one an oral (antiviral)... Particularly the attention is on the oral for the world and of us because provides several advantages and one of them is that you don't need to go to the hospital to get the treatment of which is the case with all the injectables so far but you can get it home," Albert Bourla told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday, as cited by The Hill. "If all goes well, and we implement the same speed that we are, and if regulators do the same, and they are, I hope that by the end of the year," Albert Bourla added. The only antiviral currently approved for use against the coronavirus is remdesivir, which is manufactured by Gilead Sciences. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the drug full approval in October after it was granted emergency use authorization in May last year.