What You Need to Know About Merck's New COVID Treatment Pill

  • 📰 YahooSG
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 51 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 24%
  • Publisher: 71%

Singapore Headlines News

Singapore Latest News,Singapore Headlines

The pills are designed to be taken as soon as possible once a person shows symptoms of having COVID-19 – a time when the virus is replicating rapidly and the immune system has not yet mounted a defence.

An undated photo provided by Merck shows Merck's experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir.

The pills are meant for people who are sick with COVID but are not in the hospital. Merck’s Phase 3 clinical trial enrolled only unvaccinated people who were considered high risk, such as older people or those with medical conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Initially, the drug might only be available for those people, but experts expect it to eventually become more widely available.

The 50% efficacy is lower than monoclonal antibodies, the intravenous cocktail used to treat high-risk people with mild or moderate COVID. Studies have shown that those antibodies reduce hospitalizations and deaths by up to 85% among those patients. “The FDA will look at the data, and in their usual very efficient and effective way, will examine the data as quickly as they possibly can, and then it will be taken from there,” he said.Merck expects to be able to make enough pills for 10 million people by the end of this year. The U.S. government has already ordered 1.7 million courses of treatment.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in SG

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Thailand in talks with Merck for 200,000 courses of anti-COVID-19 pillsBANGKOK: Thailand\u0027s government is in talks with US drugmaker Merck to purchase 200,000 courses of the company\u0027s experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 treatment, a Thai official said on Monday (Oct 4). Many Asian countries are scrambling to lock in supplies of the potential treatment early after they lag DOHgovph Tayo po?
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Thailand in talks with Merck for 200,000 courses of pill for COVID-19 treatmentBANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand's government is in talks with U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co to purchase 200,000 courses of the company's experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 treatment, a Thai official said on Monday. Many Asian countries are scrambling to lock in supplies of the potential treatment early after they lagged behind Western nations in COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, hit by tight supplies. South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia said they are all in talks to buy Merck's potential treatment, while the Philippines, which is running a trial on the pill, said it hopes its domestic study would allow access to the treatment.
Source: YahooSG - 🏆 3. / 71 Read more »

Thailand in talks with Merck for 200,000 courses of pill for Covid-19 treatment😮😮😮
Source: TODAYonline - 🏆 1. / 99 Read more »

Air New Zealand to require COVID-19 vaccination for international travelersAir New Zealand, the flag carrier airline of New Zealand, said on Sunday (Oct 3) it will require passengers on its international flights to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in what is one of the world\u0027s strictest policies for travellers. \u0022Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is the new reality of interna 新加坡都还没有开始呢?
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Air New Zealand to require COVID-19 vaccination for international travellersAir New Zealand, the flag carrier airline of New Zealand, said on Sunday (Oct 3) it will require passengers on its international flights to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in what is one of the world\u0027s strictest policies for travellers. \u0022Being vaccinated against COVID-19 is the new reality of interna
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Singapore's total COVID cases exceed 100,000 with 2,356 new infections, 4 more deathsThe Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (2 October) reported 2,356 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore – taking the country's total case count to surpass the 100,000 mark at 101,786 – and four more deaths due to the disease.
Source: YahooSG - 🏆 3. / 71 Read more »