Covid Antiviral Pills Can Reduce The Risk Of Hospitalization By Half.
Key Sentence:
- According to preliminary clinical study results, an experimental drug against severe Covid reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by about half.
- The tablet, molnupiravir, is given twice daily to patients newly diagnosed with the disease.
American drugmaker Merck said the results were so positive that outside observers wanted to stop the process sooner. He said he would apply for emergency drug use in the United States in the next two weeks. Dr. Anthony Foci, the chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, said the results were "excellent news" but warned of caution until the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews the data.
If approved by regulators, molnupiravir would be the first oral antiviral drug for Covid-19. Originally developed to treat the flu, the pill is said to introduce defects in the virus's genetic code by preventing it from spreading throughout the body.
An analysis of 775 patients in the study found:
Unlike most Covid vaccines, which target proteins from the spines outside the virus, the treatment works on an enzyme that the virus uses to make copies. Merck, known in the UK as MSD, said this should make it effective against new variants of the virus as it will evolve in the future.
Daria Hazuda, Merck vice president for Infectious Disease Detection
Previous studies on patients already hospitalized with severe Covid were canceled after disappointing results. Merck was the first to announce the results of a study of Covid treatment pills, but other companies are working on similar treatments. Its US competitor, Pfizer, recently started a late-stage trial of two different antiviral tablets, while Swiss company Roche is working on a similar drug.
Merck expects to produce 10 million courses of molnupiravir by the end of 2021. The US government has agreed to buy the drug for $1.2 billion (£885 million) if the FDA approves it. Not participating in the study, Professor Penny Ward from King's College London said: "There is great hope that the Antiviral Working Group is similar to the Vaccine Working Group ordering a course on this drug.
"[This is] so the UK can finally deal with this disease well by treating the disease breakthrough vaccines and easing the pressure on the next winter."
Professor Peter Horby, an infectious disease expert at the University of Oxford, said: "Safe, affordable, and effective oral antivirals would be a significant step forward in the fight against Covid. Molnupiravir looks promising in the laboratory, but the real test is whether it shows benefit in patients. However, many current drugs have failed, so these interim results are very encouraging."