Merck Requesting FDA Emergency Use Authorization for Covid Anti-Viral Pill

The pharmaceutical company Merck and their partners at Ridgeback Biotherapeutics are seeking FDA emergency use authorization for an experimental pill they developed to treat non-severe coronavirus cases.

Merck announced that they are requesting the authorization for molnupiravir after a series of trials suggested that the drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for Covid patients by around 50 percent. The drug can be consumed in capsule form, and if the FDA grants the pill their approval, it will be the first oral medicine against Covid.

The latest experimental trial for molnupiravir involved more than 700 participants who were randomly given the drug or a placebo after exhibiting Covid symptoms. No deaths were reported in patients who were given molnupiravir during the study, and Dr. Anthony Fauci has spoken about how it seems to show promise, even as it awaits the FDA’s approval.

“The extraordinary impact of this pandemic demands that we move with unprecedented urgency, and that is what our teams have done by submitting this application for molnupiravir to the FDA within 10 days of receiving the data,” Merck CEO and President Robert Davis said in the statement obtained by CNN.

Watch above, via CNN.