Merck says experimental pill cuts worst effects of COVID-19
CTV
In a potential leap forward in the global fight against the pandemic, drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half.
That could add a whole new easy-to-use weapon to an arsenal that already includes the COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said it will soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize the pill's use. A decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could come within weeks after that, and the drug, if it gets the OK, could be distributed quickly soon afterward.
If cleared, it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19. All other therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection. A pill taken at home, by contrast, would ease pressure on hospitals and could also help curb outbreaks in poorer and more remote corners of the world that don't have access to the more expensive infusion therapies.
"This would allow us to treat many more people much more quickly and, we trust, much less expensively," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the research.
