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The White House administration will pay nearly $5.3 billion to drug-maker Pfizer for 10 million treatment courses of its potential COVID-19 treatment after the approval from regulators. Pfizer asked the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to authorize the experimental pill, called Paxlovid. The company said earlier this month that Paxlovid cut the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in people with mild to moderate coronavirus infections. Point to be noted that the drug-maker studied its pill in people who were unvaccinated and who faced the greatest risk from the virus due to age or health problems, such as obesity. The FDA is already reviewing a competing pill from Merck and will hold a public meeting on it later this month.

The price for Pfizer’s potential treatment amounts to about $529 per course. However, the United States has already agreed to pay roughly $700 per course of Merck’s drug for about 1.7 million treatments. On Thursday, Pfizer said the price being paid by the US government reflects the high number of treatment courses purchased through 2022. Pfizer also produces a coronavirus vaccine and announced earlier Tuesday that the company has signed a deal with the UN-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make the COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world’s population.

However, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US Labor Department said it is suspending its enforcement of the Biden administration’s new rules ordering larger employers to either require that their workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. It is noteworthy that the Labor Department’s OSHA first posted the announcement on its website and said that the federal agency also said it is complying with a court ruling that temporarily halts the regulation for big companies and employers.