WHO Aims To Help Poorer Countries Access Vaccine With $10 Covid Pills

A World Health Organization-led programme aims to secure Merck & Co's experimental pill molnupiravir, to treat mild Covid patients, for as little as $10 per course.

A World Health Organization-led programme to ensure poorer countries get fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments aim to secure antiviral drugs for patients with mild symptoms for as little as $10 per course, a draft document seen by Reuters says.

Merck & Co's experimental pill molnupiravir, likely to be one of the drugs to treat mild patients, is being developed.

The document, which outlines the goals of the access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) until September next year, says that the programme wants to deliver about one billion COVID-19 tests to poorer nations, and procure drugs to treat up to 120 million patients globally, out of about 200 million new cases it estimates in the next 12 months.

The plans highlight how the WHO wants to shore up supplies of drugs and tests at a relatively low price after losing the vaccine race to wealthy nations which scooped up a huge share of the world's supplies, leaving the world's poorest countries with few shots.