The results seem to be good enough for Merck to go ahead and ask for emergency approval….
Like the vaccine….
It does not stop the virus…
But has shown to cut serious reactions and deaths from the virus….
It WILL help spread inoculations ….
Several other companies also have anti-virus pills in the works….
Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said in a news release they would apply for emergency use authorization for the drug, molnupiravir, in the United States as soon as possible. It would be the first antiviral pill for covid-19.
A simple, easy-to-prescribe pill that prevents mild and moderate cases of covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, from turning into dire episodes has been one of the missing pieces of the medical armamentarium to fight the virus.
Monoclonal antibodies, treatments that have kept people out of the hospital, are expensive, tricky to manufacture and cumbersome to administer, requiring infusions or injections. Vaccines have been remarkably effective, but access is limited in much of the world….
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Merck has already begun producing molnupiravir. The small brown capsules must be taken twice a day for five days. The company predicts it will make 10 million courses of treatment by the end of the year. The U.S. government made an advance purchase of 1.7 million treatment courses of the drug at a cost of $1.2 billion….
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Laboratory and animal experiments suggest the pill may be effective against known variants, including delta. Unlike vaccines or antibodies that target specific proteins on the surface of the virus, molnupiravir works by introducing genetic errors that garble the coronavirus’s genetic code. That means it may be more resistant to mutation, and may even work on other coronaviruses or RNA viruses….
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Pfizer is also developing an oral antiviral drug, and announced this week it was initiating a later-stage clinical trial testing the drug’s ability to prevent illness in people exposed to the coronavirus. Atea Pharmaceuticals is also working on an oral antiviral with pharmaceutical giant Roche….
Dr. Fauci was enthusiastic about the development of the new Merck anti-viral pill, describing it as “extremely important.” In announcing the results of its clinical trial last Friday, Merck said the pill was able to cut the risk of hospitalization and death from the virus by half.
But he also warned that Americans should not wait to be vaccinated because they believe they can take the pill. While the new medicine may decrease a person’s risk, the best way to be protected is avoiding infection, he said….
More….
Can’t wait to hear the Republican kooks take on this?
Check Fox News/Entertainment for the developing line.
I don’t see how the pill will spread innoculations – as James suggested. In fact the opposite is more likely. Because of the pill, the unvaccinated will now be even less likely to take the vaccine.
Dr Fauci meant that while the pill is certainly better than nothing, it only works half the time, and should NOT BE yet another lame excuse (like Ivermectin or Chloraquine) for not getting a pre-infection vaccination, which works something like 70-90% of the time and (unlike the pill) moves us closer to the herd immunity that protects everyone (including even the small minority who can’t yet receive a vaccination because of age or medical condition).
[P.S. No competent seventh-grade teacher would ever let the run-on sentence I wrote above pass without comment.\
Dave, you write well. I would agree with you if you were sending a Letter to the editor of a newspaper, but this blog is only viewed by six people.
Actually the site auto post’s to about 200 people thru the site itself and twitter….Yes only 6-8 people actually comment here regularly….Once in a while we get a drop in…And we keep on truckin here
BTW?
We also get Russian spammers on the regular ….
About a half dozen a day I have delete ….
How many followers do you have on Twitter? How many of those do you know personally? Do any of the regulars read your Twitter comments?
I used to follow him back when I did Twitter, more as a courtesy than anything else. Always responding to big hitters with his assumed wisdom. He makes Chuck Todd look like Mensa material by comparison.
I don’t typicallywatch Chuck Todd, but when I do, he comes across to me as intelligent and prepared.
He’s the subject, for whatever reason, of a fair amount of Liberal scorn, hence my name dropping him. At least, many Liberals I follow regularly eviscerate the guy.
Perhaps David Gregory or Chris Cuomo, always lightweights in my eyes, would have been a more apt choice.
Didn’t David Gregory run Meet the Press for a very brief while? I didn’t think Gregory was up to it.
Yes, David Gregory did host Meet the Press (NBC) after Tim Russert’s death and I hated it, just as I’m unhappy with Margaret Brennan’s return to Face the Nation on CBS. Her stand-ins did much better this summer.
And I like both Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper (State of the Union on CNN.)
David Gregory and Mary Brennan are much better as regular or investigative news reporters or as (non-interviewing) anchors.
Pfizer announced on Friday that its pill to treat Covid-19 had been found in a key clinical trial to be highly effective at preventing severe illness among at-risk people who received the drug soon after they exhibited symptoms.
The antiviral pill is the second of its kind to demonstrate efficacy against Covid. It appears to be more effective than a similar offering from Merck, which is awaiting federal authorization.
Pfizer’s pill, which will be sold under the brand name Paxlovid, cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89 percent when given within three days of the start of symptoms….
More…
Twitter followers 75…..
Site around 130……
You’re doing fine DSD…..
I agree Zreebs, and it most likely means that James won’t get vaccinated.