"This Is A Game-Changer" - Merck Releasing "Phenomenal" Test Results For Experimental COVID Pill
"This Is A Game-Changer" - Merck Releasing "Phenomenal" Test Results For Experimental COVID Pill
Looks like Merck just beat Pfizer to
the punch.
Merck announced Friday that an experimental COVID pill it has
developed reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in people recently
infected with COVID.
The
company will soon ask health officials in the US and abroad to authorize use of
the drug.
The news came as a welcome surprise to the public, although
COVID cases are already waning in the US and in hard-hit economies in Asia, the
drug could create "a real therapeutic advance" that could
dramatically decrease the risk of death from COVID.
If approved (and odds are it will be) the drug would be the
first treatment for COVID. Some compared it to tamiflu, in that patients should
take it within 5 days of COVID infection (like those infected with the flu are
instructed to take tamiflu early).
Former FDA Director Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the trial
results are clearly "profoundly" positive, even though researchers
decided to stop the trial early because the drug showed significant success,
meaning it would be unethical to keep giving patients placebos. To test the drug,
they needed to test more than 700 unvaccinated people in a global study. The
people were all considered in the "high risk" category due to factors
like age, and other characteristics from their "health profile".
Per the results, 7% of volunteers in the group that received the
drug were hospitalized, and none of them died, compared with a 14% rate of
hospitalization and death (include eight who died) in the placebo group.
According to Dr. Gottlieb, "this is a phenomenal result. This
is a profound game-changer that we have an oral pill that had this kind of
effect on patients who are already symptomatic."
Dr. Gottlieb also pointed out that the team that developed the
drug "also
invented the first successful antibody against ebola so this is a very good
drug-development team."
"And
remember we have two other drugs in development one by Pfizer (where Dr.
Gottlieb serves on the board) and the other by Roches," he said.
Patients won't be taking the drug for very long, typically around five days, which means "the safety profile is probably pretty good," Dr. Gottlieb said.
Per the NYT, "the
Merck pill’s efficacy was lower than that of monoclonal antibody treatments,
which mimic antibodies that the immune system generates naturally when fighting
the virus. Those drugs have been in high demand recently,
but they are expensive, are typically given intravenously, and have proved
cumbersome and labor-intensive for hospitals and clinics to administer. Studies
have shown that they reduce hospitalizations and deaths 70 to 85 percent in
similar high-risk Covid patients."
The Merck drug is significantly chemically different from the
Pfizer drug that's in its final round of studies, which means there's the
possibility of creating a cocktail of anti-viral treatments for COVID. Merck
has said it can produce 10MM pills by the end of this year, and Dr. Gottlieb
said he expects they'll ramp up production quickly by partnering with other
companies.
Merck partnered with a small firm called Ridgeback
Biotherapeutics to develop the drug, which is called Molnupiravir. While the
study results haven't yet been peer reviewed, at least one independent group of
medical experts have given the research their blessing.
"This
is a milestone in the fight against COVID," Dr.
Gottlieb said.
So, is the prospect of a return to "normality" really
on the table? I suppose we're about to find out.
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