American pharmaceutical firm Merck & Company has applied for U.S. emergency use authorization for its drug to treat mild-to-moderate patients of COVID-19.
If approval is granted it would be the first oral antiviral medication for the disease.
An authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could help change clinical management of COVID-19 as the pill can be taken at home.
According to data released earlier this month, the treatment, molnupiravir, reduced the rate of hospitalisation and death by 50% in a trial of mild-to-moderately ill patients who had at least one risk factor for the disease.
The interim efficacy data on the drug set off a scramble among nations, including Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore, to sign a supply deal with Merck.
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