PETALING JAYA: A new pill with the promise to treat Covid-19 is creating waves across the world and even at US$700 for a five-day course of treatment, it might just be a game changer.
It is too early to tell if it will be available to Malaysians, although health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed that he has started negotiations for Malaysia to procure the drug Molnupiravir, which is reputed to have shown a 50% reduction in the risk of hospitalisation and death.
Developed by US pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co, the pill has yet to get emergency authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It would be the first Covid-19 oral antiviral medicine, if approved.
Here’s what we know about the pill so far.
How does the pill work?
The pill has been designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, thereby stopping effective replication. It is designed to be taken once someone displays Covid-19 symptoms.
One course of the treatment lasts five days, with four capsules taken twice a day for a total of 40 pills.
How effective is it?
Merck says the drug cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death in half according to trials conducted among 775 Covid-19 adults with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 symptoms.
After 29 days, 7% of those who received the drug were hospitalised compared to 14% of those who received the placebo. No deaths were reported in patients who received Molnupiravir while there were eight deaths in patients who took the placebo, the company said.
Will Malaysia get the pill?
Khairy did not provide any schedule. In June, the US government said it would procure approximately 1.7 million courses, pending emergency use authorisation. Merck has said it expects to produce 10 million courses of treatment by the end of the year.
How much does it cost?
It is understood that the US government contract to supply 1.7 million courses of Molnupiravir amounts to US1.19 billion ( 1.7 million doses x US$700 (RM2,930) per dose).
Merck has said it would implement a tiered-pricing approach based on World Bank country income criteria. The company has licensed established generic manufacturers to accelerate availability of Molnupiravir to more than 100 low and middle-income countries pending approval or emergency authorisation.
Any side effects?
According to the UK’s Science Media Centre, full details of any side effects are yet to be made available. Merck has also not reported any serious side effects among those in their clinical trials.
However, the UK centre quoted an associate professor in cellular microbiology as saying that people involved in the trial were instructed to abstain from heterosexual sex or to use contraception, which “suggests that the drug has the potential to cause birth defects should someone become pregnant”.
Who is Merck?
Merck is a 130-year-old US-based multinational pharmaceutical company which reported US$46.8 billion in sales last year, placing it fifth among US drugs companies, behind the leaders Johnson & Johnson (US$56.1 billion) and Pfizer (US$51.8 billion), and ahead of GlaxoSmithKline (US$44.3 billion).
Two of Merck’s best-selling products are Keytruda and Januvia, which are used to treat cancer and diabetes respectively. - FMT
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