WASHINGTON, United States — Jamaica has been excluded from a Pfizer agreement announced Tuesday to make its prospective antiviral COVID-19 pill available at a cheaper cost to the world’s least-wealthy countries.

Pfizer said it will sub-licence production of its Paxlovid pill to generic drug manufacturers for supply in 95 low- and middle-income nations covering around 53 per cent of the world’s population.

Read: Pfizer asks US to authorise COVID pill

Hard hit Brazil, Cuba, Iraq, Libya, China, and Russia have also been excluded from the deal and will have to buy pills directly from Pfizer, likely at higher prices.

Under the deal struck with the global Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), Pfizer — which also produces one of the most widely-used COVID vaccines with German lab BioNTech — will not receive royalties from the generic manufacturers, making the treatment cheaper.

The agreement is subject to the pill passing ongoing trials and regulatory approval.

Interim data from ongoing trials demonstrated an 89 per cent reduction in the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death compared to a placebo, in non-hospitalised high-risk adults with COVID-19 within three days of symptom onset, said Pfizer.

It added that similar results were seen within five days of symptom onset.