Merck says experimental coronavirus pill cuts deaths and hospitalisations by half
- If cleared by health officials, this would be the first pill shown to treat Covid-19, unlike current procedures involving injection or an IV
- This would ease pressure on hospitals and help curb outbreaks in poorer or more remote areas without access to more expensive therapies
Drug maker Merck said on Friday that its experimental Covid-19 pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus, potentially a leap forward in the global fight against the pandemic.
The company said it will soon ask health officials in the US and around the world to authorise the pill’s use. A decision from the US Food and Drug Administration could come within weeks after that, and the drug, if okayed, could be distributed quickly soon afterward.
If cleared, it would be the first pill shown to treat Covid-19. All other therapies now authorised in the US require an IV or injection. A pill taken at home, by contrast, would ease pressure on hospitals and could also help curb outbreaks in poorer and more remote corners of the world that don’t have access to the more expensive infusion therapies.
“This would allow us to treat many more people, much more quickly and, we trust, much less expensively,” said Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in the research.
Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of Covid-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalisation and death as patients who received a dummy pill.