UK Gives OK to Merck's Breakthrough Anti-COVID Pill, Pfizer Announces Its Antiviral Pill Works Too

The United Kingdom granted conditional authorization Thursday to the first pill officially shown to successfully treat COVID-19. It's the first country to OK the treatment from drugmaker Merck, but it is not known when the pill will be available to the public.  

Those with mild to moderate COVID symptoms would take four pills of molnupiravir, twice a day for five days. Adults 18 or older who have tested positive for COVID-19 and who could be at risk for developing severe disease, including people with issues like obesity or heart disease, are slated to be the first patients to receive the pill. 

Molnupiravir is also pending review with regulators in the U.S., the European Union, and other countries. 

Merck has said it can produce 10 million treatment courses through the end of the year, but much of that supply has already been purchased by governments worldwide, so initial supplies of the pill could be limited. 

READ Top Israeli Doctor Says Ivermectin Could Help Treat COVID, Urges More Research

"Today is a historic day for our country, as the U.K. is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for COVID-19," British Health Secretary Sajid Javid said.

"We are working at pace across the government and with the NHS to set out plans to deploy molnupiravir to patients through a national study as soon as possible," he said in a statement, referring to the U.K.'s National Health Service. 

Doctors said the treatment would be particularly significant for people who don't respond well to vaccination.

Merck announced preliminary results in September showing its drug cut hospitalizations and deaths by half among patients with early COVID-19 symptoms. The results haven't yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

Pfizer Announces Another Pill to Fight COVID

On Friday, Pfizer also announced it has successfully tested an experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19 as well. 

Pfizer claims its pill cut rates of hospitalization and death by nearly 90%. Fewer than 1% of patients taking the drug needed to be hospitalized and no one died.

"We were hoping that we had something extraordinary, but it's rare that you see great drugs come through with almost 90% efficacy and 100% protection for death," said Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer.

How Merck's Drug Works

The Merck drug targets an enzyme the coronavirus uses to reproduce itself, inserting errors into its genetic code that slow its ability to spread and take over human cells. That genetic activity has led some independent experts to question whether the drug could potentially cause mutations leading to birth defects or tumors.

Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said molnupiravir's ability to interact with DNA and cause mutations had been studied "extensively" and that it wasn't found to pose a risk to humans.

"Studies in rats showed that (molnupiravir) may cause harmful effects to the unborn offspring, although this was at doses which were higher than those that will be given to humans, and these effects were not observed in other animals," the agency said in an email.

Last week, Merck agreed to allow other drugmakers to make its COVID-19 pill, in a move aimed at helping millions of people in poorer countries receive the pill. The Medicines Patent Pool, a U.N.-backed group, said Merck will not receive royalties under the agreement for as long as the World Health Organization deems COVID-19 to be a global emergency.
 
The U.S. has agreed to pay roughly $700 per course of the drug for about 1.7 million treatments. Merck says it plans to use a tiered pricing strategy for developing countries. 

A review by Harvard University and King's College London estimated the drug costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment.

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Will Merck's Pill Be Approved in the US?

As CBN News reported last month, Merck requested U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization for its COVID pill.  The FDA said it would convene a panel of independent experts to scrutinize the pill's safety and effectiveness later this month. 

"Of importance is that in the placebo group there were eight deaths, and in the treatment group there were no deaths," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "That's also very important and very good news."

Molnupiravir was initially studied as a potential flu therapy with funding from the U.S. government. Last year, researchers at Emory University decided to repurpose the drug as a potential COVID-19 treatment. They then licensed the drug to Ridgeback and partner Merck.

*This report was compiled using material from the Associated Press