Pfizer announced that it has initiated a Phase 2/3 study, EPIC-PEDS (Evaluation of Protease Inhibition for Covid-19 in Pediatric patients), to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of Pfizer’s Paxlovid in non-hospitalized, symptomatic, pediatric participants with a confirmed diagnosis of Covid-19 who are at risk of progression to severe disease.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 11 million children under the age of 18 in the United States alone have tested positive for Covid-19, representing nearly 18% of reported cases and leading to more than 100,000 hospital admissions. There is a significant unmet need for outpatient treatments that can be taken by children and adolescents to help prevent progression to severe illness, including hospitalization or death,” said Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scientific Officer and President, Worldwide Research, Development and Medical, Pfizer. “Paxlovid is already authorized or approved in many countries around the world, with more than 1.5 million treatment courses delivered thus far and 30 million expected by July to help combat this devastating disease. We are proud to expand studies of our novel Covid-19 treatment to include pediatric participants to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of this treatment in this important population.”