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Merck 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/
