A pill and a lot of hope. The United Kingdom announced, Thursday, November 4, to be the first country to authorize molnupiravir, a pill treatment against Covid-19 developed by the American laboratory Merck. Antivirals like molnupiravir work by decreasing the ability of a virus to replicate, thereby slowing down the disease.
“Today is a historic day for our country as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home against Covid-19Health Minister Sajid Javid said in a statement. It will be a game-changer for the most vulnerable and the immunocompromised, who will soon be able to receive this revolutionary treatment. “
Molnupiravir has been cleared by the UK regulatory agency, MHRA, for use in people with mild to moderate Covid who have at least one risk factor for developing serious illness (obesity, over 60 years , diabetes, heart disease).
Its application can be twofold: both to allow people already affected not to suffer from serious symptoms, but also to those who have been in close contact not to develop it. Administered to patients within days of a positive test, the treatment halves the risk of hospitalization, according to a clinical trial conducted by Merck, also called MSD outside the United States.
The British government, faced with Covid-19 contamination rates among the highest in the world, announced on October 20 that it had ordered 480,000 treatments of molnupiravir. He also signed a contract for 250,000 treatments of ritonavir, another antiviral from the American laboratory Pfizer already used against HIV, the efficacy of which against the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus is being tested in clinical trials. France, she has ordered enough to treat 50,000 patients with the drug from Merck.