UK Approves First Oral Antiviral for Covid-19
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UK Approves First Oral Antiviral for Covid-19
By Alabidun Shuaib Abdulrahman
The antiviral medicine molnupiravir was approved by the British government on Thursday to treat the coronavirus, making it the first antiviral pill to be recommended by a public health body for use in Covid patients.
Experts believe the pill holds new potential in the fight against the coronavirus, and its approval by the drugs authority is a significant step forward.
The medicine can be taken orally, which distinguishes it from other treatments like remdesivir, which must be given intravenously. Outside of a hospital, the pill form makes it easier to treat the infection and prevent symptoms before they get serious.
Molnupiravir reduced the chance of hospitalization and death in high-risk Covid patients who took the treatment soon after infection in a large clinical trial, raising international expectations that the tablet could be a new strategy to combat the virus.
Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ Molnupiravir has been submitted for emergency permission to the US Food and Drug Administration, which will hold a public meeting to consider the application at the end of November. However, wealthier nations have been hurrying to make deals to buy the medication even before it was approved by most regulators.
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Merck announced a licensing agreement for molnupiravir last month.
The decision on Thursday to approve the drug for use in Britain was made after a “rigorous review” of its “safety, quality and effectiveness,” according to the statement from the watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Britain’s regulator authorized the drug for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people who have at least one factor that would put them at high risk for becoming severely ill from the virus. In the clinical trial, the most common risk factors were being over 60 years old or having obesity or diabetes.
Dr. June Raine, the agency’s chief, said that scientists and clinicians were satisfied that the pill was “safe and effective for those at risk of developing severe Covid-19.”
The drug “is another therapeutic to add to our armory,” Dr. Raine noted in the statement.
Trial research has suggested that the pill is likely to be most effective when taken during the early stages of infection.
Source: New York Times
