November 8, 2021 – Britain is the first to grant approval to the experimental drug molnupiravir from U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, marking first authorization for an oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 in adults.
According to a report from The Washington Post, “Experts have said that if widely authorized, the medicine could have huge potential to help fight the coronavirus pandemic: Pills are easier to take, manufacture and store, making them particularly useful in lower- to middle-income countries with weaker infrastructure and limited vaccine supplies.”
Merck President Robert M. Davis said in a statement, “We will continue to move with both rigor and urgency to bring molnupiravir to patients around the world as quickly as possible.” Merck has also applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization to push the treatment on a larger scale.
“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,” said British Health Secretary Sajid David.
The pill will go by the name Lagevrio in Britain. After a global clinical trial, Lagevrio reportedly “reduced hospitalizations and deaths by nearly half” in higher risk adult COVID patients with mild to moderate symptoms. It works by confusing the genetic code of the virus by introducing errors, preventing the virus from making copies of itself.
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Center in Geneva, said, “I would say it’s very significant in terms of giving patients and the public a large confidence that this treatment can be widely used.”