First-stage testing of the experimental COVID-19 tablet referred to as Molnupiravir, by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, confirmed promising indicators of effectiveness in decreasing the virus in sufferers.
“It could be the holy grail on this as a result of it was simply studied in part two trials and it actually stopped the virus in its tracks,” he defined. “And there wasn’t any virus discovered within the sufferers that had been studied.”
FDA WARNS AGAINST USING HEAD LICE DRUG IVERMECTIN TO TREAT CORONAVIRUS
The drug would operate as an at-home, five-day remedy, just like Tamiflu, to cease the virus from reproducing earlier than inflicting main injury. Siegel mentioned the therapeutic may come to market in as little as 4 to 5 months.
The physician mentioned despite the fact that solely 182 sufferers had been studied throughout testing up to now, the tablet may nonetheless be “very promising” for 1000’s of individuals.
“This is likely to be the longer term as soon as the vaccine actually will get management over the pandemic and we simply begin seeing remoted circumstances,” he mentioned. “By then, this drug is likely to be prepared and this is likely to be the drug for over the subsequent a number of months.”
Siegel predicted the U.S. will probably be freed from the coronavirus pandemic by the summer season, making the Molnupiravir remedy “very useful” for managing remoted circumstances.
“That is the very first tablet that we’ve got that’s one thing that we would be capable to use in our armamentarium in opposition to COVID as a therapeutic,” he mentioned.
