Merck Pharmaceuticals has applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of "Molnupiravir," an antiviral drug against COVID-19. According to Reuters, the FDA's emergency use authorization could "potentially" change the clinical management of COVID-19, as the drug can be taken at home. Molnupiravir has contributed to a 50% increase in recovery rates from COVID-19 for patients with moderate and mild infections, according to a statement from Merck released last month.
Reuters notes that the drug's effectiveness has heavily impacted shares of companies manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines and has led to competition among countries, including Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore, in signing agreements with Merck, the producer of the drug.
In June, the Biden administration approved the purchase of Molnupiravir for $1.2 billion, and the company stated that it expects to produce a total of 10 million doses of the drug by the end of 2021. Molnupiravir is one of several antiviral drugs currently under development or testing.
According to a statement from the company's CEO, Robert Davis, "The extraordinary impact of the pandemic drives everyone to act with unprecedented urgency, collaborating with other regulatory bodies, as we strive to deliver Molnupiravir to patients worldwide as quickly as possible."
### Other Medications
According to the Nature website, the drug makes treating patients early in the infection much easier and more effective, preventing hospital overcrowding, especially in countries where vaccination rates remain low. The site notes that the drug was highly effective in a phase three trial involving individuals infected with COVID-19.
Other available medications for combating COVID-19 can only be administered intravenously or by injection, complicating access for infected individuals before reaching the hospital. Remdesivir, for instance, is only administered to hospitalized patients, while the monoclonal antibody treatment has only been used in limited circumstances due to its complexity.
So far, remdesivir is the only drug that has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as researchers found it shortened recovery duration for patients by an average of 5 days to just 1 day. Merck hopes that Molnupiravir will be next to obtain authorization.
### Early and Strong Intervention
However, Richard Plumber, a virologist at the University of Georgia in Atlanta, believes that it's better to start taking these drugs as soon as possible. The more severe the illness, the less effective the medications become. He adds: "Pills that only require a trip to the pharmacy as soon as symptoms appear will make early treatment much easier, helping to limit the worsening of infections."
On the other hand, Sai Koo, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Liverpool in the UK, who led a clinical trial for Molnupiravir, mentions that with the emergence of COVID-19, there hadn't been any antiviral agents since the first SARS trial in 2002. According to the site, "COVID-19" was not the first disease caused by a coronavirus, as SARS was one of these viruses, but it quickly faded, meaning that drug producers had no "incentive" to develop antiviral treatments.
