On October 1, 2021, Pharmaceutical company “Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics” announced the early results of Phase-3 trials of its anti-viral drug called molnupiravir. As per the results, Molnupiravir has reduced the chances of hospitalisation by half among COVID-19 patients with mild or moderate symptoms.

Highlights

• Placebo trials comprised of testing a drug on thousands of people. Among them, some get the drug and some do not.
• In the group that do not get placebo, 53 patients or 14% of the patients were either hospitalised or had died. On the other hand, among the group that got drug, 28 patients or 7.3% were hospitalised or succumbed to the covid-19 infection.
• Patients were monitored for 29 days. No deaths were reported among the patients who received molnupiravir. On the other hand, eight deaths were reported among those who received placebo.

Is molnupiravir effective against COVID-19 treatment?

Complete result of phase 3 trials form molunupiravir is still unknown. However, the drug has reassured the hospitalisation-avoidance rates. Company will be submitting data to the United States Food and Drugs Administration soon for a review. Following it, this drug may be approved for emergency use authorisation.