U.S. to buy 10 mln courses of Pfizer's COVID-19 pill for $5.3 bln

Pfizer Inc said the U.S. government would pay $5.29 billion for 10 million courses of its experimental COVID-19 antiviral drug, as the country rushes to secure promising oral treatments for the disease. The deal is for around twice as many treatment courses as Merck & Co Inc has agreed to supply the United States under its contract. The price for the Pfizer pill is nearly 25%lower at roughly $530 per course, compared with about $700 for Merck's.