US authorizes Merck’s at-home antiviral COVID-19 capsule

The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Merck & Co’s antiviral capsule for Covid-19, after giving the go-ahead to an identical therapy from Pfizer Inc a day earlier.
Merck’s drug, molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was proven to scale back hospitalizations and deaths by round 30% in a medical trial of high-risk people early in the middle of the sickness.

The company approved the oral drug for the therapy of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults who’re in danger for extreme illness, and for whom different COVID-19 therapies aren’t accessible or clinically applicable.
The US authorities has a contract to purchase as many as 5 million programs of the drug for $700 per course.

The drug just isn’t approved to be used in sufferers youthful than 18 as a result of molnupiravir might have an effect on bone and cartilage development, the FDA mentioned in a press release.