While the focus has been largely on vaccines, you might have also heard Pfizer is trialling a pill to treat COVID-19.

It almost sounds too good to be true. Indeed, the results are very preliminary — but it’s a promising approach.

Where most antiviral agents we’ve tried to treat COVID-19 target the inflammatory and immune response resulting from infection, Pfizer’s pill directly targets SARS-CoV-2 — the virus itself.

Much of the illness associated with COVID-19 is due to the intense inflammatory and immune response that can occur with an infection. The most successful treatments so far have targeted this overzealous immune response.