According to Friday's announcement, an antiviral pill was shown to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half for patients with Covid-19.
The drug, made by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck in the USA, would be the first oral medicine to prove its effectiveness against Covid-19. This would be a significant step forward in the fight against the pandemic. While other drugs such as remdesivir have been proven to be effective when administered early, all approved treatments must be administered as IV injections or injections.
Merck stated that it will apply for an emergency use authorization for the drug in the US within two weeks, and seek approval in many other countries.
775 people with moderate to severe Covid were included in the trial. They were more at risk of developing severe diseases due to their health conditions such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Half of those who participated in the trial were administered molnupiravir, a 5-day course. 53 patients in the placebo group were hospitalized (14%), compared to only 28 (7%) for those who received the drug. According to Merck, there were eight deaths in drug-treated patients after this time period compared to none in placebo.
The study data were made public via a press release, but have not been peer-reviewed. An independent panel of medical experts that monitored the trial advised against stopping it because the interim results were so positive.
Dean Li, vice president of Merck research, stated that the drug performed better than I expected it to in the clinical trial. A significant clinical impact is when you see a reduction of 50% in death or hospitalization.
The press release contained very little information about side effects. However, the companies stated that rates were comparable between the placebo and treated groups. A bad outcome or adverse event occurred in 35% of participants who received molnupiravir, and 40% of those who were given placebo. The adverse event rate was only 1.3%, while it was 3.4% for those who stopped taking the placebo.
Patients could use the convenient pill to control future infections and reduce the impact of the pandemic.
