Australia and Asian countries join the US in buying the candidate for the first anticovid pill

Medication

According to pharmaceutical company Merck, the antiviral molnupiravir reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in severe cases of Covid-19 by about 50 percent, but it is pending approval

Australia and some Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are the first to join the United States in the acquisition of molnupiravir, the experimental drug against Covid-19 developed by the pharmaceutical company Merck, despite not being still approved by the health authorities.

Australia announced this week that it has ordered 300,000 doses of molnupiravir, which Merck says reduces the risk of hospitalization or death in covid-19 patients by about 50 percent, according to the results of a clinical study.

Merck announces that the first pill against covid is effective in severe cases

Thus, the countries of Asia-Pacific follow the example of the United States government, which already in June agreed to buy about 1.7 million doses of the treatment for about $1.2 billion, if the pill was licensed in the country.

Australia also subjects acquisition to prior approval by medical authorities. "If the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) medical experts approve the use of this treatment, it will join other Covid-19 treatments, such as sotrovimab and remdesivir, which are already available to Australian doctors to help to treat people with Covid-19," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday.

The Australian government also reported on Monday the arrival of 15,000 doses of sotrovimab in the country

The Australian government also reported on Monday the arrival of 15,000 doses of sotrovimab in the country for the treatment of Covid -19, considering that it reduces hospitalization and death rates by 79 percent of adults.

The second country that has reserved the most doses so far is Malaysia, with 150,000, as announced by the Ministry of Health on Thursday, to prepare for the next phase of the pandemic in which covid-19 becomes an endemic disease .

Health will administer the third dose to those over 69 years of age as of October 25

The Minister of Health, Khairy Jamaluddin, affirmed this Thursday in Parliament that the medicine will be administered free of charge to patients who have had symptoms for at least five days or at the discretion of doctors, according to the Bernama news agency.

Although Malaysia has already vaccinated 90 percent of its adult population with the full schedule, the minister warned that infections continue to occur, so this treatment is necessary as a complement to vaccines.

What about Europe?

The EMA will consider whether to start a review

"In the next few days we will study the possibility of starting a rolling review for this compound. And, of course, The idea is to understand if the data support this continuous review," Marco Cavaleri, head of the Strategy for Biological Health Threats and Vaccines of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In South Korea, Prime Minister Kim Boo Kyum announced last Wednesday that the country had reserved some 20,000 doses of Merck's experimental drug through an agreement signed with this pharmaceutical company, at a meeting of the government working group dedicated to the pandemic.

The South Korean Executive had previously indicated that it is also holding talks with the American Pfizer and the Swiss Roche, pharmaceutical companies that are also in the race to develop an antiviral pill against covid-19 that facilitates the treatment of the disease.

In Thailand they hope to start importing the drug in December or January

In Thailand, the director general of the Department of Medical Services, Somsak Akksilp, said that the country hopes to start importing the drug in December or January, without specifying the amount, although he stressed the importance of Merck getting its approval for emergency use by the competent bodies in the US and in Thailand itself.

According to the Straits Times newspaper, Singapore has also reached an agreement to purchase the drug due to its supposed effectiveness against all variants of Covid-19, including delta, which is the majority in the country, although the exact nature of the drug is not yet known. amount.

Possible first antiviral for oral (and domestic) use against covid

Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which developed the drug, will request authorization for emergency use from the United States health authorities and will request permits of commercialization in other regulatory agencies in the world.

Merck has indicated that the interim analysis of the results in the use of the compound Molnupiravir showed that 7.3% of the patients who received the drug were hospitalized within 29 days. Within 29 days of the trial, 14.1% of patients who received a placebo were hospitalized or died. There were no deaths among the patients who received molnupiravir, while eight patients died in the placebo group.

"If authorized for use, Molnupiravir could be the first oral antiviral drug for covid-19," the firm added.