molnupiravir manufactured by Merck.
This was reported by the BBC.
Health Minister Sajid Javid said in a statement, “Today is a historic day for our country as The UK became the first country in the world to approve an antiviral drug that can be taken at home for Covid. “
In clinical trials, the pill has cut the risk of hospitalization or death by about half. For medical reasons, the molnupiravir tablet will be given twice a day to patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19. Molnupiravir is developed by the American pharmaceutical companies Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Clinical trials
Preliminary clinical trials of molnupiravir in 775 patients with recent Covid cases revealed:
- 7.3% of those who received the drug were hospitalized.
- this was compared with 14.1% of patients who were given placebo or dummy pills.
- there were no deaths in the molnupiravir group but eight patients who were given a placebo in the study later died of Covid.
In addition to the UK and the US, Australia, Singapore, South Korea also entered into a purchase agreement.
Recall that the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved for emergency use of Indian vaccines inu against coronavirus Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.
