Merck says antiviral pill against COVID-19 highly effective
October 1, 2021
The US pharmaceutical giant Merck announced on Friday the results of an internal study of its antiviral COVID-19 treatment pills. It said the results showed hospitalizations and deaths were reduced by half when taken by people recently infected with COVID-19, although academic peer review is not yet completed.
The company will soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorize the use of the drug, called molnupiravir. It would be the first antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 effectively, a potential turning point in the pandemic.
Merck's executives said they would submit the drug for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the coming days, claiming that approval could be just weeks away.
The company partnered with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to produce the drug.
Governments around the world have already signed contracts to secure the pill, including the US, which will purchase 1.7 million doses of the drug once it is approved by the FDA.
Merck said it hoped to manufacture 10 million doses by the end of the year.
How does Merck's molnupiravir work?
Molnupiravir works by disrupting the ability of COVID-19 to copy its genetic code and reproduce itself. It has shown to be similarly effective with other viruses.
The study involved 775 adults at risk of suffering more severe bouts of COVID-19 in several continents. There was about half the rate of hospitalization and death of those given the treatment compared to those receiving the placebo.
About 7.3% of patients taking molnupiravir were hospitalized or died from complications resulting from COVID-19, compared to 14.1% of those who received a placebo.
At the end of 30 days, there were no deaths among those taking molnupiravir compared to eight deaths among those given a placebo.
While the company released the results, which have not been peer-reviewed, there was an independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial. They recommended stopping the trial early given the strength of the interim results.
Drug could help turn the page on the pandemic
Dr. Dean Li, vice president of Merck Research Laboratories, said, "It exceeded what I thought the drug might be able to do in this clinical trial."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, has long called for a pill to treat COVID-19 much as there is for the common flu.
Pfizer and the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche are studying how to manufacture similar drugs.
Merck has said it would license the drug to generic drug manufacturers based in India, making it available to people infected with COVID-19 in developing countries.
ar/msh (AP, Reuters)