New coronavirus pill has encouraging results in preliminary trials

A new pill against the coronavirus had encouraging results in preliminary trials, as reported by the American media this Saturday The Wall Street Journal.

This is the antiviral pill molnupiravir, developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP and Merck MRK & Co and, according to a phase two study, succeeded in reducing the infectious virus during a five-day treatment.

As these media report, if at the end of the tests the pill shows that it is used to treat people who contract the virus, it would become the first oral antiviral against covid-19.

The trial involved 182 people and The effect of different doses of molnupiravir has been studied in patients who had symptoms of coronavirus a few days previously.

From the Ridgeback company, they pointed out that they had not detected the infectious virus in any of the volunteers who took molnupiravir twice a day after five days of treatment, while they did so in 24% of people with received a placebo.

Wayne Holman, co-founder of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said preliminary results show the drug prevents the coronavirus from replicating in the body.

It was also reported that there was no security alert, and “of the four serious incidents reported, none has been taken into account in relation to the drug studied,” said the laboratory.

The results of this study “are promising,” said William Fischer, one of the research directors and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.

“If reinforced by further studies, they could have significant public health consequences as the virus continues to spread and evolve around the world.”

Merck is also working on a treatment called MK-711.

The first results of clinical trials show a more than 50% reduction in the risk of death or respiratory failure in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe forms of COVID-19, the group said in late January.

LM