The United Kingdom (UK) has approved for use, Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral pill, molnupiravir.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recommended the drug for people with mild to moderate cases of Covid-19 and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness, such as obesity, older age, diabetes, and heart disease.
According to the MHRA, molnupiravir will be administered as soon as possible following a positive Covid-19 test and within five days of the onset of symptoms.
The approval is the first for oral antiviral drug treatment and the first for a Covid-19 drug that will be administered widely in the community.
Merck’s Molnupiravir has been closely watched since data last month showed it could halve the chances of Covid-19 patients dying or being hospitalized.
Molnupiravir, which will be branded as Lagevrio in the UK, is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 and is taken twice a day for five days.
Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the National Health Service (NHS) in England, told Reuters that the drug would be administered to patients at higher risk of complications.
A wider rollout will follow if it is clinically and cost effective in reducing hospitalisations and death, he added.
“We are now working across government and the NHS to urgently get this treatment to patients initially through a national study so we can collect more data on how antivirals work in a mostly vaccinated population,” UK vaccines minister Maggie Throup told parliament, according to Reuters.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri