Follow Us on Google News
Britain will start to roll out Merck’s molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral pill through a drug trial later this month, Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser at the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday.
The government said in October it had secured 480,000 courses of the Merck drug, as well as 250,000 courses of an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer Inc.
Asked about the molnupiravir approval, Hopkins told BBC television: “That is great news and it will start to be rolled out through a drug trial in the end of this month/the beginning of December.”
Hopkins said all the trials so far had been done with the unvaccinated, so this would help understand how it will work in the wider vaccinated population.
Read more: Britain becomes first country to approve antiviral pill for COVID-19
“The new Pfizer drug is probably not going to be licensed until the new year some time,” she added. “It is still likely to be a couple of months away.”
Pfizer and Merck have developed experimental antiviral pills that have shown promising efficacy in trials of adults with COVID-19 who are at high risk of serious illness.
Both drugs also are being studied to see if they can prevent infection in people exposed to the virus.
Here is an explanation of the differences in the two pills.
