A Pill to Treat COVID Could Be Just Months Away

The medications, developed to treat and prevent viral infections in people and animals, work differently depending on the type. But they can be engineered to boost theto fight infection, block receptors so viruses can’t enter healthy cells, or lower the amount of active virus in the body.

The top contender is a medication from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics called molnupiravir, Dieffenbach said. This is the product being tested in the Kellys’ Seattle trial. Two others include a candidate from Pfizer, known as PF-07321332, and AT-527, an antiviral produced by Roche and Atea Pharmaceuticals.

Clinical trials have followed, including an early trial of 202 participants last spring that showed that molnupiravir rapidly reduced the levels of infectious virus. Merck chief executive Robert Davis said this month that the company expects data from its larger phase 3 trials in the coming weeks, with the potential to seek emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration “before year-end.”Pfizer launched a combined phase 2 and 3 trial of its product Sept.

“When we get there, that’s the idea,” said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious diseases and immunology expert at Columbia University. “To have this all around the country, so that people get it the same day they get diagnosed.”infections are now a subject of fierce competition and funding. In June, the Biden administration announced it had agreed to obtain about 1.7 million treatment courses of Merck’s molnupiravir, at a cost of $1.

Participants must be unvaccinated and enrolled in the trial within five days of a positive covid test. Any given day, interns make 100 calls to newly covid-positive people in the Seattle area — and most say no.

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