On Thursday, Britain made history by approving Merk’s Molnupiravir as the world’s first oral drug to treat Covid-19 symptoms. The experimental pill for Covid treatment by one of the pharmaceutical giants, Merk, becomes the first oral drug to get approval from the public health body as an oral antiviral treatment.
As per the experts, the approval of this drug is a breakthrough in the fight against Covid-19 that the world is unanimously fighting. According to them, if authorized widely, this could have a huge potential to treat Covid in the middle-income countries where infrastructure and vaccine distribution is not up to the mark, as it is way easier to manufacture, distribute and take a pill.
As the approval by the Britain health authorities came, Robert M. Davis, the President of Merk stated, “We will continue to move with both rigor and urgency to bring molnupiravir to patients around the world as quickly as possible.”
While the UK is celebrating this breakthrough, Merk has already applied for urgent approval of the drug to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Moreover, the European Health Agencies have revealed a rolling review of the pill.
While announcing the approval of the world’s first oral treatment drug for Covid-19 on Thursday, the British Health Secretary, Sajid Javid stated, “Today is a historic day for our country. This will be a game-changer for the most vulnerable … who will soon be able to receive the ground-breaking treatment.”
Earlier, Emory University found in a study that Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which is helpful to develop medication for the infectious disease could also be helpful with Covid-19 patients. Seeking the conclusion from the study Merk developed the drug, which then went for a mass trial.
The UK medicines regulator found that the drug was effective on people older than 60 years of age or the ones who have an underlying condition that would make them more prone to the covid infection. They concluded after “a rigorous review” that the pill usage is “safe and effective” to curb the symptoms of coronavirus.
Currently, America has made an advance purchase of Molnupiravir’s courses worth $1.7 million. On the other hand, other countries around the world including Australia, South Korea, and Singapore have made an agreement to buy the pills from Merk.
