Israel has finalized an agreement to purchase about 100,000 units of Pfizer’s antiviral COVID-19 pill and is set to receive the first shipment in the coming week, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The pharma giant and the ministry signed off on the purchase of some 100,000 doses following talks between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla over the weekend.
The antiviral pill will be available free of charge to Israelis in high-risk groups.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week granted emergency authorization to the medication that was shown in clinical trials to be nearly 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in patients at high risk of developing severe illness.
Recent lab data suggests the drug — marketed under the brand name Paxlovid — retains effectiveness against the Omicron variant.
Israel is also expected to receive thousands of units of Merck’s Molnupiravir oral antiviral drug within the following few weeks, which was also granted emergency authorization by the FDA.
While early reports indicate that the new Omicron variant causes milder illness than the Delta variant, with a reduced risk of hospitalization, Health Ministry data shows a 24 percent increase in serious cases over the past eight days, with the total standing at 98 on Sunday.
Out of the new serious cases, 75 percent did not receive any of the three available vaccine shots.
Early analysis of the Omicron variant finds that the three-dose regimen offers around 70 percent to 75 percent protection against mild disease.
Over 4 million people in Israel have received a booster shot.