UK approves first COVID antiviral pill for use
The United Kingdom (UK) has become the first country globally to approve a COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by US-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
The potentially game-changing drug, molnupriavir, was recommended by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for use in people who suffer from mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 and have at least one risk factor for developing severe illness which includes obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The drug will be administered to patients who test positive for the coronavirus and within five days of the onset of symptoms.
The MHRA said this determination is made by clinical data gathered throughout the trial phases of the drug.
The approval for the pill is the first for an oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment worldwide and it will be the very first time the drug will be administered on a wide-scale community level.
FDA to review drug’s safety this month
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers from the United States are expected to meet on November 30 of this month to review the drug’s safety and efficacy and vote on whether the drug should be authorised for use in the US.
The pill, which is expected to be branded as Lageviro in the UK, has been designed to reprogram the genetic coding of the COVID-19 and introduce errors. The pill will be taken twice a day for at least five days.
The pill will be a welcomed addition for many people across the world as treatments to tackle the impacts of the virus are mainly focused on vaccines.
Also, the data by Merck’s on the pill has shown it could slash the possibility of dying or being severely hospitalised by COVID-19 by 50 percent.
Wider roll-out
A wider rollout will follow if it is clinically and cost-effective in reducing hospitalisations and death.
If the pill proves to be successful in the UK, it could mean good news for the Virgin Islands and other Caribbean states as they try to deal with the impacts of the pandemic. While the Virgin Islands has had higher uptake of the vaccines among citizens in comparison to other countries in the Caribbean, there is still some level of vaccine hesitancy in the territory.
However, this antiviral treatment provides an alternative for the vaccine. The statistics show that a little more than 52 percent of the population is fully vaccinated while six per cent has received its first dose of a two-dose vaccine.
While many people may have questions surrounding the validity of the antiviral drug because other drugs in the same class as molnupiravir has been linked to birth defects in animals, Merck & Co Inc said its testing data on animals indicate it is completely safe for use. However, the data is not yet made available to the public.
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Early safety concerns accompanied Merck’s molnupiravir, the first potential oral COVID-19 therapy.
The lack of long-term safety data concerning molnupiravir could be an obstacle for skeptical patients. That’s especially the case given early conclusions that there are “persistent side-effect concerns with mutagenic molnupiravir,” as a Clinical Trials Arena article observed. That article goes on to cite Ron Swanstrom, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who in January questioned “whether molnupiravir could be metabolized into a precursor of DNA,” and then “enter the host cell nucleus, leading to oncogenesis.”
In theory, mutagenic drugs can cause either birth defects or cancer. The inclusion criteria for the Phase 3 study of molnupiravir required males to refrain from donating sperm and either agree to abstain from sex or use contraception. Females were required to not be pregnant or breastfeeding. Women who were of child-bearing age had to agree to use a highly effective contraceptive method or be abstinent for 28 days from the start of the study intervention. In addition, women of childbearing age must have had a negative highly sensitive pregnancy test within 24 hours before receiving the first dose of medicine.
https://www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/early-safety-concerns-accompanied-mercks-molnupiravir-the-first-potential-oral-covid-19-therapy/
If it was so good then the UK covid cases would’ve been under control
This is a treatment for infected persons, not a preventative medicine. It has only just been approved for use in the UK, so your comment truly is stupid.
just shows we never needed the vax. I strongly believe (no offense) those that supposedly died from covid would have died from chikungunya, dengue or any other strong flu.
The article says this pill has the capability to modify genetic coding, so what makes you think the medical “conspirators” can’t alter it to kill Anti-Vaxxers like you?
Soon you will be an anti-piller. And then I don’t know which anti-what would be stupider.
we need to look up monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin
Too bad it will never be approved in the US since there’s too much money to be made by getting “shots in arms”
If it saves lives its GREAT!