EU regulator starts real-time review of Merck’s COVID pill

The EU’s medicines watchdog said Monday it had started a review of an oral Covid medication from the US pharmaceutical firm Merck, raising hopes for an easy-to-administer treatment to reduce serious or deadly cases.

The move, which could eventually lead to authorisation on the European market, comes two weeks after Merck applied for emergency use in the US of the anti-coronavirus drug.

“EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has started a rolling review of the oral antiviral medicine molnupiravir… developed by Merck Sharp & Dohme in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for the treatment of Covid-19 in adults,” the European Medicines Agency said in a statement.

Preliminary results “suggest that the medicine may reduce the ability of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid‑19) to multiply in the body, thereby preventing hospitalisation or death in patients with Covid‑19,” the EMA said.

Antivirals like molnupiravir work by decreasing the ability of a virus to replicate, thereby slowing down the disease. It is taken orally. AFP