Japan Firm Claims Its COVID Pill Will Reap $2-B In Annual Sales

Japan's Shionogi & Co. Ltd. believes its COVID-19 pill will easily garner $2 billion in annual sales if it secures US approval, which the company expects to receive in late 2024, its chief executive said, Rocky Swift reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Xocova, a protease inhibitor like the COVID treatments developed by Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., was granted emergency approval by Japanese regulators in November.

Xocova, a protease inhibitor like the COVID treatments developed by Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., was granted emergency approval by Japanese regulators in November, making it the nation's first domestically produced oral treatment for COVID.

CEO Isao Teshirogi told Reuters that the drug - seen as the biggest of heavy bets by Shionogi on pandemic-related treatments - could be approved in South Korea and China as early as next month.

While Xocova came later to the market than Shionogi initially hoped for after Japanese regulators twice requested more data, the company says interim results of a study suggest taking the pill could lessen a patient's chances of developing long COVID.

"If you kill the virus fast enough and sharp enough, the lower the probability of long COVID. That's our hypothesis, but we need to prove that," Teshirogi said in an interview.

Competing drugs are also under the microscope for their potential to deliver similar outcomes. According to one study by the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, Pfizer's antiviral drug Paxlovid cuts the risk of developing many long COVID symptoms.

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