Merck touts pill that treats COVID
Drugmaker Merck said Friday that its pill to treat COVID-19 was shown in a key clinical trial to halve the risk of hospitalization or death when given to high-risk people early in their infections.
The strong results suggest that a new wave of effective and easyto-use treatments for COVID will gradually become available in the U.S., though supply is likely to be limited at first. Merck said it would seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its drug, known as molnupiravir, as soon as possible. The pills could be available by late this year.
Merck’s drug would be the first pill to treat COVID-19. It is likely to be followed by a number of other antiviral pills that other companies are racing to bring to market. They have the potential to reach more people than the antibody treatments that are being widely used in the U.S. for high-risk patients.
“I think it will translate into many thousands of lives being saved worldwide, where there’s less access to monoclonal antibodies, and in this country, too,” said Dr. Robert Shafer, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University.
White House officials Friday hailed the trial data but noted that the antiviral pills were no substitute for more Americans getting vaccinated. Despite the growing number of governments and companies mandating vaccines, only 56 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated.
“The right way to think about this is, this is a potential additional tool in our toolbox to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID,” said Jeff Zients, a White House coronavirus adviser. Vaccination, he said, “remains far and away our best tool against COVID-19.”
The results of clinical trials of two other antiviral pills, one developed by Pfizer and the other from Atea Pharmaceuticals and Roche, are expected in the next few months.
The Merck drug is designed to stop the coronavirus from replicating by inserting errors into its genetic code. Doctors will prescribe the treatment to patients, who will receive the pills from pharmacies. The drug is meant to be taken as four capsules twice a day for five days — a total of 40 pills over the course of treatment.
The federal government has placed advance orders for 1.7 million courses of the treatment, at a price of about $700 per patient.
Merck, which is developing the pill with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics of Miami, has not said which patients it plans to ask the FDA to authorize the drug for.