This was one of two pills the govt has bought into. This particular one was produced by Merck, and was bought into largely on the back of a press release by Merck which said they had decided to stop the Phase III trial as the drug had proved itself so well.
As I mentioned in another thread, Merck have now released the full results of the trials and the drug's efficacy has gone down from 50% to 30%. That isn't good news really, and they may well get booted off the Govt programme.
www.merck.com/news/merck-and-ridgeback-biotherapeutics-provide-update-on-results-from-move-out-study-of-molnupiravir-an-investigational-oral-antiviral-medicine-in-at-risk-adults-with-mild-to-moderate-covid-19/
Molnupiravir works by mutating the COVID spike protein to make it ineffective, and previously a related drug caused mutation in normal cells in pregnant rats, so that was considered a possibility with this drug by some, so if it goes, it's probably for the best - though we really need something alongside the vaccines.
|
