Research is progressing at a rapid pace in order to develop an anti-coronavirus drug. There is great competition in this field among pharmaceutical companies.
In this context, the US drug laboratories, “Merck”, announced today, Monday, that it has submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration a request for a rapid license for an anti-Covid-19 drug, which clinical trials have shown to halve the risk of hospitalization and death of people with this epidemic.
If licensed, the drug “molnopiravir” will constitute an important advance in the fight against the pandemic by contributing to the reduction of dangerous forms of the disease.
“The extreme consequences of this pandemic require us to act urgently and unprecedentedly, and this is what our teams have done by submitting a license application for molnopiravir” to the US authorities, Robert Davis, president of Merck Laboratories, said in a statement.
This type of easy treatment, which comes in tablet form, is highly anticipated and seen as effective in fighting the pandemic.
Merck Laboratories said it was “actively working with regulators around the world to apply for urgent-use authorizations or to allow it to be brought to market in the coming months.”
Merck based its request on the results of a clinical trial it conducted with its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and included people with mild or moderate cases of Covid-19 with at least one factor that could lead to a deterioration in their health.
These people received treatment in the five days after the first symptoms appeared.
The hospitalization or death rate for patients who received the drug was 7.3%, compared to 14.1% for people who received a placebo.
And no deaths were recorded in people who received the drug “molnopiravir” compared to eight cases in the other group.
The results were compelling enough that an independent data monitoring committee, in consultation with the US Food and Drug Administration, decided to discontinue the trial early.
Source: agencies
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