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thewayneMerck has released information on a new drug, molnupiravir, that significantly reduces hospitalization if given promptly after diagnosis. If you're already sick enough to be hospitalized - sucks to be you. This pill isn't going to do much for you.
From the article:
An oral antiviral drug appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by roughly 50 percent in people newly diagnosed with the infection and at risk for severe disease ...
The drug-maker and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, released top-line results of a Phase III trial, which the companies ended early given the positive results. The companies say they will apply for an Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible.
The trial enrolled people who had newly tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection and had onset of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms within just the past five days of starting the trial. The enrollees also had to have at least one risk factor for a poor outcome, such as having obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or being age 60 or above. While some participants received a placebo and standard care, others took an oral dose of the drug every 12 hours for five days.
After 29 days of follow-up, 53 out of 377 participants who received the placebo were hospitalized with COVID-19, and eight of those participants died. Among those who received the drug, only 28 of 385 were hospitalized and none of those patients died. Put another way, 7.3 percent of patients on the drug were either hospitalized or died compared with 14.1 percent in the placebo group.
Merck also highlighted that the trial was global and that the drug appeared to work equally well against varying SARS-CoV-2 variants, including delta, gamma, and mu. The drug-maker noted that it had viral genetic data to identify variants from 40 percent of participants.
One very nice thing is the studies were conducted world-wide, and the pill is effective against all current variants!
The article goes on to discuss details of how it works, and emphasis strongly that because of its mechanism of action, it specifically is not recommended for pregnant women. I'm also unclear if this is a "one and done" pill or part of a multi-pill treatment.
Still, always good to have more than one arrow in your quiver. And naturally, no indication of how much said arrow costs.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/meet-molnupiravir-mercks-thor-inspired-pill-that-hammers-covid/
From the article:
An oral antiviral drug appears to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by roughly 50 percent in people newly diagnosed with the infection and at risk for severe disease ...
The drug-maker and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, released top-line results of a Phase III trial, which the companies ended early given the positive results. The companies say they will apply for an Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible.
The trial enrolled people who had newly tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection and had onset of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms within just the past five days of starting the trial. The enrollees also had to have at least one risk factor for a poor outcome, such as having obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or being age 60 or above. While some participants received a placebo and standard care, others took an oral dose of the drug every 12 hours for five days.
After 29 days of follow-up, 53 out of 377 participants who received the placebo were hospitalized with COVID-19, and eight of those participants died. Among those who received the drug, only 28 of 385 were hospitalized and none of those patients died. Put another way, 7.3 percent of patients on the drug were either hospitalized or died compared with 14.1 percent in the placebo group.
Merck also highlighted that the trial was global and that the drug appeared to work equally well against varying SARS-CoV-2 variants, including delta, gamma, and mu. The drug-maker noted that it had viral genetic data to identify variants from 40 percent of participants.
One very nice thing is the studies were conducted world-wide, and the pill is effective against all current variants!
The article goes on to discuss details of how it works, and emphasis strongly that because of its mechanism of action, it specifically is not recommended for pregnant women. I'm also unclear if this is a "one and done" pill or part of a multi-pill treatment.
Still, always good to have more than one arrow in your quiver. And naturally, no indication of how much said arrow costs.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/10/meet-molnupiravir-mercks-thor-inspired-pill-that-hammers-covid/
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 03:47 am (UTC)I'd still get a booster (already double-vaxxed) if one came available and continue wearing masks - I'm not playing games with my life.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 05:41 am (UTC)You know, I'm not in the least surprised. There's an easy answer: if you haven't had at least one shot, your insurance doesn't cover the cost of the pill. You pay full MSRP. There's been plenty of opportunity, vaccine is literally expiring and being thrown away because people are not seeking it out. So sure, wait for the pill if you get sick. But be prepared for some sticker shock. And that stupid little fake CDC card isn't going to cut it if Blue Cross or Humana or whoever doesn't have a verifiable record of you having gotten a needle in your arm. I got my booster and suffered through a day of 100 degree fever, and I've got a card with three lines filled in. But I also have a primary immune deficiency and don't have a functional immune system, so I made sure I was fully vaccinated and got my first shot in February as soon as my group opened.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 02:33 am (UTC)And for those who are uninsured? I mean we can spread it, too, and there are tens of millions of us on any given day. And...are they going to charge people to take these pills, for real? I had it in my mind they'd be free like vaccines are but maybe I should go RTFA(s) again.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 03:47 am (UTC)MM, it's frustration talking. I don't want anyone to die of Covid. I've lost one relative to it, and I've had several friends lose relatives to it. In my ideal world, we'd have universal, single-payer health care. And if you wanted better and could afford it, go for it. I'm just so frustrated that these people refuse to get vaccinated, and then when they get sick, they either want the full extent modern medicine - which they've denied - to save them, or they want the hospitals to pump them full of de-wormer and other ineffective "miracle cures" that they've heard about to save them. All they needed were two little shots, and they probably wouldn't have been there in the first place. These people are flooding hospitals and preventing people who need elective surgeries from getting them, and that just [multiple expletives deleted] me off. I live because of modern medical science - most of my immune system is non-functional and I don't produce antibodies in any meaningful quantity. So I'm a high stake-holder in this: my wife, friends and I were on tenterhooks until I was able to get my second vaccination six months ago and avoided getting sick last year. Meanwhile these jerks flaunt "My body, my right" while ignoring women who would like the same right regarding pregnancies or the fact that they're spreading a potentially fatal disease to people who cannot get vaccinated.