Coronavirus: Merck seeks license for pill that reduces risk of hospitalization and death by 50%

The American pharmaceutical company Merck announced that it is going to request within the next two weeks urgent leave from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its pill Covid-19.

Molnupiravir pill is given twice a day for five days in patients recently diagnosed with coronavirus infection. If the drug is approved and marketed, it will be the first treatment of this kind for the disease Covid-19.

The clinical trial was interrupted prematurely, after the analysis of the data from 775 patients so far showed that in the next 29 days the 7,3% of patients taking the drug, against 14,1% those who had taken placebo, according to the Financial Times.

The company will ask for the "green light" for the release of the drug in other countries. If taken, the drug will begin to be widely prescribed to untreated patients with coronavirus. The drug seems to be effective versus various of variants of the coronavirus, among which against the dominant today Delta.

O Greek-American Vice President of Clinical Trials of Merck, Nick Kartsonis, stated that "it is remarkable that this is the first oral antiviral drug for non-hospitalized patients which seems to offer benefit. It is clearly an important point in the development of our battle against it Covid-19».

Η Merck, which intends to produces millions of pieces of the new drug in collaboration with the small company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, is in a "race" of competition with the Pfizer for the development of the first widely used antiviral pill to prevent severe Covid-19. So far they only exist monoclonal antibodies against coronavirus, administered intravenously and at high cost.