According to The New York Times, US Government spent more than $18 billion to develop COVID-19 vaccines last year. Now its investing another $3.2 billion to develop Covid pills to fight the virus early writes the Times.

According a recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) annoucement, Biden administration is investing ‘$3 Billion from American Rescue Plan as Part of COVID-19 Antiviral Development Strategy’. Accordingly this plan, called Antiviral Program for Pandemics – “will respond to the urgent need for antivirals to treat COVID-19 by spurring the availability of medicines to prevent serious illness and save lives. It also will build sustainable platforms for discovery and development of antivirals for other viruses with pandemic potential, helping better prepare the nation to face future viral threats”.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) who reportedly a supporter the program, is quoted saying that ‘he looked forward to a time when Covid-19 patients could pick up antiviral pills from a pharmacy as soon as they tested positive for the coronavirus or develop Covid-19 symptoms’.

I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel very well, my sense of smell and taste go away, I get a sore throat. I call up my doctor and I say, ‘I have Covid and I need a prescription’.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with The Times

In the Reuters News, Deena Beasley writes that the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc while it was developing COVID-19 vaccine, it was also exploring possibilities for producing “pills” for COVID similar to Tamiflu, which is widely used to treat influenza virus. “The team scoured Pfizer’s library of molecules looking for unused compounds to help jumpstart the process, and quickly identified a promising candidate”.

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Talking to Reuters News, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is quoted saying that testing antivirals is also difficult as drug needs to be given early in the course of an infection, which means finding trial participants who have recently contracted COVID-19. “Many people infected with the virus develop only mild symptoms, but studies need to prove that a drug has a meaningful impact on patient health”. However, the company is expected to seek emergency authorization in the United States for a COVID-19 pill as soon as late this year, writes the Reuters.

Merdad Parsey, Chief Medical Officer of the Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, told Reuters “We are all on the hunt for the next Tamiflu”.

“New antivirals that prevent serious COVID-19 illness and death, especially oral drugs that could be taken at home early in the course of disease, would be powerful tools for battling the pandemic and saving lives. Through multidisciplinary collaborations among leading scientists in academia and industry, this investment from the American Rescue Plan to create the Antiviral Program for Pandemics will help inspire medical innovation and build on the extraordinary success we have seen in developing the COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr Fauci.