As part of a clinical trial, an experimental antiviral pill developed by the American Merck is said to have halved the chances that patients newly diagnosed with Covid-19 19 are hospitalized. These results, published in Nature Structural &Molecular Biology , still need to be peer reviewed.
We have several weapons to fight Covid-19:our immune system, masks, social distancing rules and vaccines, essentially. However, we could soon take advantage of a new asset. In a late-stage clinical trial, a new antiviral pill developed by Merck Laboratories in association with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics has reportedly halved the risk of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 ending up in hospital or dying from the disease. /P>
The drug, called molnupiravir, could be the first oral drug specifically approved to fight Covid-19, assuming health authorities agree. In the meantime, the trial data has not yet been peer-reviewed .
Molnupiravir is a broad-spectrum antiviral . It works by introducing mutations into the coronavirus's genetic material, or RNA, as the pathogen tries to multiply. Thus, the drug mimics an RNA building block and locks into the growing RNA sequence, thus impeding the ongoing process.
The trial included 775 adults diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid. Each of the participants had at least one risk factor associated with poor outcomes (diabetes or cardiovascular disease). Within five days of symptom development, subjects were randomly assigned to receive either a five-day course of molnupiravir or a five-day course of a placebo pill, taking two tablets daily.
Results:29 days after the start of treatment, 53 patients in the placebo group (14.1% of the sample) were hospitalized or died from the disease. In the molnupiravir group, only 28 people (7.3%) were hospitalized. In addition, no deaths were recorded in this group.
Regarding side effects, approximately 35% of those who received molnupiravir and 40% of those who received a placebo experienced "some adverse event". The document does not specify these effects. It is also unclear if they were related to the pills or if they were just symptoms of Covid-19. A total of 1.3% of molnupiravir-treated participants discontinued treatment because of these effects, compared to 3.4% in the placebo group.
Also note that an independent data monitoring board as well as the FDA have advised both labs to stop recruiting new trial participants due to the apparent efficacy of the drug. At this point, they indeed judged that giving the participants a placebo instead of the pill would have been unethical.
At this time, these results are still under review. If successful, Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics plan to file an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application with the FDA as soon as possible. They will also turn to other government health agencies. Merck said it could produce ten million of these pills by the end of 2021 .
