Covid-19: UK first country to adopt antiviral drug

Last updated on November 6th, 2021 at 04:07 am

UK -The UK has approved using the anti-Covid pill Molnupiravir, manufactured by Merck & Co (MSD outside the United States and Canada) in partnership with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It is the first country to give the green light to the antiviral drug to treat Covid-19. MHRA, the UK drug agency, has authorized the pill to treat mild to moderate disease in adults who have tested positive for Coronavirus and have at least one risk factor for developing severe disease. It will be sold under the name of Lagevrio.

Molnupiravir is currently under review by other international regulatory bodies, such as the US FDA and the European EMA. The EMA said today those studies suggest that antiviral may reduce the ability of the Coronavirus to multiply in the body. Thus, preventing hospitalization or death in infected patients, and has been guaranteed to be ready to advise the Member States to make this new treatment available for emergency use before a marketing authorization.

Merck announced it expects to produce 10 million doses by the end of the year, pending possible authorizations from regulatory agencies, and at least 20 million in 2022. “Today is a historic day for our country (in the fight against the pandemic, ed) because the United Kingdom becomes the first country in the world to have approved an antiviral against Covid-19 that can be taken at home,” said Sajid Javid, a government minister of health of Boris Johnson. The agreement stipulated provides for the supply of the drug for 480,000 people in the United Kingdom.

Molnupiravir is an antiviral drug that in Phase 3 clinical study (performed on 775 patients) was shown to halve the risk of hospitalization and death in adult patients with mild and moderate Covid who were not vaccinated were at risk of developing severe disease. And 80% of the cases examined are of people infected with the variants (Delta, Gamma, and Mu). Thus, results that had been defined by the same immunologist Anthony Fauci, a consultant to the White House for the pandemic, were “impressive” and led to the suspension of the recruitment of volunteers for the superiority of the drug over placebo.