FDA advisers endorse Merck's COVID antiviral drug in narrow vote
CBSN
A panel of the Food and Drug Administration's outside drug advisers voted narrowly Tuesday to endorse allowing antiviral pills developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to be prescribed for COVID-19, following an hours-long meeting mulling the benefits and risks of molnupiravir to treat the disease in high-risk adults.
While not binding, the vote by the FDA's Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee could clear the way for the agency to grant emergency use authorization for adults, as the United Kingdom has already done. Some 3.1 million courses of Merck's five-day treatment have been purchased for distribution by the Biden administration, if the pill is greenlighted.
"I voted yes because COVID-19 is still an emergency situation," Dr. W. David Hardy, a scientist at Charles Drew University School of Medicine and Science and one of the committee members, said following the vote.
Strong storms with damaging winds and baseball-sized hail pummeled Texas on Tuesday, leaving more than one million businesses and homes without power as much of the U.S. recovered from severe weather, including tornadoes, that killed at least 24 people in seven states during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss is facing backlash for allegedly sharing remarks that audience members found sexist, homophobic and generally offensive at a Q&A event over the weekend tied to a Massachusetts theater's screening of "Jaws." Dreyfuss starred in the 1975 blockbuster that was filmed in Massachusetts and screened Saturday night at The Cabot, a performing arts center in the coastal community of Beverly.
Another American who was arrested in the Turks and Caicos Islands for possessing ammunition was sentenced to time served and a $9,000 fine on Tuesday, local media reported. Tyler Wenrich was facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years in prison for ammunition charges in the British territory.