Japan's health ministry on Thursday granted fast-track approval for the use of an oral COVID-19 pill developed by Pfizer Inc., increasing the treatment options for people with mild symptoms.Paxlovid, a combination of two antiviral drugs, nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, is set to become the second oral drug for mild coronavirus infections available in Japan, which has been seeing surging cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.The government has agreed with the U.S. pharmaceutical giant to procure Paxlovid for 2 million people within the year, of which pills for 40,000 people ha…READ FULL ARTICLE
