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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday granted full approval to Pfizer's oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid, clearing the way for the drugmaker to sell it at market rates once U.S. government supplies dwindle.

Paxlovid initially received emergency use authorization from the FDA in late 2021, when there was a desperate need for effective COVID treatments. The agency on Thursday approved the two-drug therapy to treat adults at high risk of progression to severe disease.

Paxlovid, taken for five days beginning shortly after onset of symptoms, was one of the few treatments launched by drugmakers during the pandemic to show a significant reduction in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID, although the benefit was mostly observed in unvaccinated and other higher-risk people.

U.S. officials have said they plan to work through much of the Paxlovid inventory purchased from Pfizer, which is available for free at pharmacies around the country, before moving to a normal commercial market.

As of May 21, around 14 million treatment courses had been distributed of which over 9 million had been administered, according to federal data. Head over to Medscape to read the full story.