Enough room for next-gen COVID antiviral drugs - SVB Leerink

Pardes Biosciences

24/03/2022 10:32

** Brokerage SVB Leerink expects demand for experimental
antiviral drugs that are being developed by Pardes Biosciences
 PRDS.O , Aligos Therapeutics  ALGS.O  and Enanta Pharma
 ENTA.O  when COVID-19 becomes an endemic virus 
    ** Citing a survey of 168 doctors, brokerage says there is a
strong underlying demand for drugs that have an improved profile
compared to the existing treatments by Merck  MRK.N  and Pfizer
 PFE.N  
    ** Brokerage says ~50% of the surveyed think that Pfizer's 
Paxlovid is moderately difficult to prescribe as it is known to
react with other drugs 
    ** Doctors will accept a 10-20 percentage point efficacy
reduction vs Paxlovid in return for reduced drug interaction
risk, SVB Leerink says 
    ** "We expect the market to be large with room for multiple
emerging antivirals"- brokerage
    ** Physicians expect that antiviral drugs could become
mainstay outpatient treatments for mild-moderate COVID-19 at
high risk for disease progression and post-exposure prevention 


 (Reporting by Manas Mishra)
 ((Manas.Mishra@thomsonreuters.com;
www.twitter.com/Manaswrites15))