Thought of the Day - October 20 2021 - Merck's New Therapeutic Drug

Merck says its new COVID pill, named after Thor's hammer, Mjölnir, reduces the risk of hospitalization, and death by half for patients.

A phase 3 trial of Merck/Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ oral antiviral treatment Molnupiravir showed it reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by around 50% in some COVID patient groups. Merck is seeking emergency use authorization in the U.S. and has also submitted to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), looking to be the first approved oral antiviral medicine for COVID-19.

This is indeed great news. As we have been saying on this blog for some time, it is clear tackling COVID will require more than just vaccines.

There has also been research done comparing Molmupiravir with Ivermectin in inhibiting the replication of the coronavirus inside the body. One of these studies, from the Baylor College of Medicine, indicates that in vitro (meaning in the lab) Molmupiravir was shown to have some superior properties to Ivermectin. In addition, they suggest that the two taken together may have a synergistic effect. Of course Merck should know, as they are the ones who developed both of them in the first place. Merck is hoping that these improvements will help justify the price which is expected to be around $900 or a thousand times more expensive than Ivermectin, which is now out of patent protection. Wait, what?!

Yes indeed, after a year-long campaign to convince the general public in regulated countries like Canada that Ivermectin does not work, a campaign that included statements from Merck itself saying in February of this year that Ivermectin has "No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies", they are now promoting a new and improved Ivermectin 2.0.

Moreover, the new pill, whose active ingredients cost about $2.50, and whose supplied treatment cost should be less than $20, will sell for 45 times that. Incredible.

If Merck can pull this off, they might even best Moderna, whose profits managed to boost three of their executive into this year's Forbes list of America's 400 Richest.

Cheers

Cliff

P.S. Since our last update ( Thought of the Day - August 17 2021 - The Non-Treatment of COVID ) BC's CDC has now added monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for mild COVID hospital cases (Bamlanivimab/etesevimab, REGN-COV2, Sotrovimab, Regdanvimab etc.) to their therapeutics dashboard.