All eyes on Merck’s Covid drug results
Developing states especially stand to improve their treatment strategies
As Merck & Co. races ahead with an experimental pill that could play a pivotal role in the fight against Covid-19, efforts are intensifying to bring the drug to developing countries that have struggled to vaccinate their populations.
The global health agency Unitaid and its partners hope to reach an agreement as soon as next week to secure the first supplies of the antiviral treatment for lower- and middleincome nations, Philippe Duneton, its executive director, said in an interview. Unitaid has been in discussions with the company and generic manufacturers, he said.
“This is really what we’ve waited for all these months,” he said. “There is a window of hope with this treatment, and now we need to collectively make it work for people” in less well-to-do countries.
Turning point
If the new medication hits the market, it could be a turning point in the pandemic, but the global supply picture is uncertain. On the vaccine front, lower-income nations have been left behind. About nine months after the arrival of Covid shots, more than 55 countries have yet to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations. More than two dozen nations are below 2 per cent.
The drug, known as molnupiravir, cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 50 per cent in an interim analysis of a late-stage clinical trial, Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP said on Friday.
The results were so positive that Merck and Ridgeback - in consultation with independent trial monitors and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - elected to stop enrolling patients and begin the process of gaining regulatory clearance.
Merck said it expects to produce 10 million courses of treatment by year-end, with more expected in 2022. In June, the company agreed to a $1.2 billion supply deal with the US government, under which it would provide 1.7 million courses of the treatment.