Cheap version of Merck COVID-19 pill to be made for poorer nations

BRUSSELS: A UN-backed agency has struck a deal for nearly 30 generic drugmakers to make low-cost versions of Merck & Co's COVID-19 pill molnupiravir for poorer nations, widening access to a drug seen as a weapon in fighting the pandemic.

The agreement, negotiated by the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool with Merck, allows 27 generic drugmakers from India, China and other countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East to produce ingredients and the finished drug. The developers of molnupiravir, which alongside Merck are US firm Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Emory University, will not receive royalties for the sale of the low-cost versions produced by generic drugmakers while COVID-19 remains classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization .

if it's cheaper and it reduces hospitalisation & death (the only argument for the vaccines), why not the whole world?

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