The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that it has launched the accelerated review of the antiviral pill against COVID-19 from the American pharmaceutical company Merck, an easy-to-administer drug crucial in the fight against the pandemic.
“The EMA Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) launched an ongoing review of the oral antiviral drug molnupiravir (…) developed by Merck (…) for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults”the Amsterdam-based European regulator said in a statement.
Preliminary results of laboratory and clinical studies “They suggest that the drug may reduce the ability of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) to multiply in the body, thus preventing hospitalization or death of patients”, indicated the EMA.
If approved, this drug called molnupiravir it would go a long way by reducing the severe forms of the disease fairly easily.
Antivirals like molnupiravir They act in a way that reduces the virus’s ability to replicate and, therefore, slows down the disease.
Given to patients immediately after testing positive, the treatment cut the risk of hospitalization and death by half, according to a clinical trial conducted by Merck, also called MSD outside of the United States.
The EMA will analyze the conformity of molnupiravir with European standards for efficacy, safety and quality.
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