The approval got here lower than a month after Pfizer utilized in mid-January, an distinctive pace in a rustic the place overseas drug approvals normally take for much longer.
Well being Minister Shigeyuki Goto stated the supply of Pfizer’s Paxlovid tablet offers high-risk sufferers, together with aged folks and people with underlying well being points, higher therapy choices.
The approval comes as surging instances amongst aged sufferers are beginning to overwhelm hospitals in Tokyo and different metropolitan areas, and delayed booster vaccinations have reached solely about 8% of the inhabitants.
Most of Japan’s 47 prefectures are at present underneath a light model of a state of emergency.
On Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida introduced plans to increase present restrictions in Tokyo and 12 different areas for 3 extra weeks till March 6.
Japan is relying on oral therapies to assist cut back severe instances and deaths, and Kishida stated the federal government has secured 2 million doses of the Pfizer capsules. Goto stated distribution of the Pfizer capsules will start Monday.
Kishida is going through rising criticism over the gradual rollout of booster vaccines. He lately set a goal of 1 million doses by the top of February, however specialists say it could be too late.
The Pfizer tablet, a mixture of the antiviral medicine nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, is the second Covid-19 oral therapy Japan has accredited, after Merck & Co.’s antiviral tablet molnupiravir.
Japan’s Shionogi & Co. can also be within the remaining stage of medical testing of its personal tablet. The corporate plans to produce 1 million doses this yr.