U.S. FDA Approves Merck COVID-19 Anti-Viral Pill

The U.S. on Thursday authorized Merck & CO.’s antiviral COVID-19 pill for certain high-risk adult patient. The approval came in a day after FDA approved similar but more effective treatment from Pfizer.

FDA remarked Merck’s drug could be used in case of unavailability of other authorized treatments or at times when clinically appropriate.

Molnupiravir was developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and results have shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by 30% in clinical trial of high risk individuals.