UK to roll out antiviral Covid pill as soon as this month
Britain will start to administer Merck’s molnupiravir COVID-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said today.
Last week, Britain became the first country in the world to approve the potentially game-changing COVID-19 antiviral pill, jointly developed by U.S. drug companies Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
The government said in October it had secured 480,000 courses of the Merck drug, as well as 250,000 courses of an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer Inc.
Asked about the molnupiravir approval, Hopkins told the BBC: “That is great news and it will start to be rolled out through a drug trial in the end of this month/the beginning of December.”
Hopkins said all the trials so far had been done with the unvaccinated, so this would help understand how it will work in the wider vaccinated population.
“The new Pfizer drug is probably not going to be licensed until the new year some time,” she added. “It is still likely to be a couple of months away.”
Molnupiravir is the first oral antiviral medication for Covid which can be taken as a pill rather than injected or given intravenously.
It targets an enzyme that the virus uses to make copies of itself, introducing errors into its genetic code. That should prevent it from multiplying, so keeping virus levels low in the body and reducing the severity of the disease.
The UK regulator, the MHRA, said the tablet had been authorised for use in people who have mild to moderate Covid and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness such as obesity, old age, diabetes or heart disease.
Other countries including Australia, Singapore and South Korea have made similar purchase agreements.