Covid drug cuts risk of death by half: Merck
BUCHAREST/CANBERRA: Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death by 50% in an interim analysis of a late-stage trial, findings that could give doctors another potent virusfighting tool.
The drug giant and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics are halting the study and plan to seek an emergency-use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration as quickly as possible, Merck chief executive Officer Rob Davis said in an interview. Merck also plans to submit applications to regulators in other countries.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the results,” Davis said. “You don’t have to go to the hospital, you don’t have to go to a centre to have it infused. It’s a pill you can take at home.”
7 killed in hospital fire Seven people died on Friday when a fire broke out in a Romanian intensive care unit treating Covid-19 patients, officials said, the country’s third deadly hospital fire in less than a year.
Video footage showed patients jumping out of windows from the hospital’s lower levels and firefighters carrying people out. The country’s emergency response unit had initially said nine people had died, but transport minister Lucian Bode later said there had been a miscommunication between firefighters and hospital staff.
Oz to lift travel ban
Australia has outlined plans to lift a pandemic ban on its vaccinated citizens travelling overseas from November. But no date has yet been set for welcoming international tourists back.
Travel restrictions that have trapped most Australians and permanent residents at home over the past 18 months would be removed when 80% of the population aged 16 and older were fully vaccinated, PM Scott Morrison said on Friday.
Just 2% of the population, or less, have been fully vaccinated against Covid in half of the countries in Africa, the World Health Organization said on Thursday,
Fifteen of the continent’s 54 nations have managed to vaccinate at least 10% of their people, achieving the global goal for September 30, set in May by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body.
Meanwhile, Pakistan banned unvaccinated adults from flights on Friday as it tries to push vaccinations and avoid further lockdowns to contain the coronavirus. Aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan announced the ban on Twitter, saying “only fully vaccinated passengers of age 18 years and above will be allowed to undertake domestic air travel within Pakistan”.