Coronavirus pandemic
The Washington Post Democracy Dies in Darkness

Biden administration to buy Pfizer antiviral pills for 10 million people, hoping to transform pandemic

Pfizer, meanwhile, asks regulators to authorize the pills and agrees to allow them to be made and sold for less in poor countries.

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Updated November 16, 2021 at 6:44 p.m. EST|Published November 16, 2021 at 1:14 p.m. EST
With breakthrough cases rising and 30 percent of adults not fully vaccinated, health officials say antiviral pills will help tame the pandemic by thwarting the most pernicious effects of the coronavirus. (AP)

The Biden administration is planning to purchase 10 million courses of Pfizer’s covid pill, a $5 billion investment in a treatment that officials think will help change the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic by reducing severe illness and deaths, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction.