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Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday the 1.7 million doses of Merck’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment purchased by the United States earlier this year were “not enough” .
Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “1.7 million doses, under the indication that this is likely to be approved, would cover us with a month of the Delta Wave … in the south.”
“So I think there could have been a little more forethought to try to set up more manufacturing and get more doses,” Gottlieb added.
He explained that the National Strategic Reserve has between 50 million and 80 million treatments in the event of an influenza pandemic, for comparison.
“It’s not enough,” @ScottGottliebMD said of the 1.7 million doses of Merck’s new COVID-19 pill purchased by the US government.
He says that by comparison, the national stockpile has between 50 and 80 million treatments for a dreaded pandemic flu. pic.twitter.com/FjVZTkzNMO
– Face the Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 3, 2021
Gottlieb added that rationing of the Merck treatment would be likely.
“I would expect to see a similar pattern to what we have with antibody-based drugs where this will be attributed to states,” Gottlieb told Brennan.
Earlier this summer, the Biden administration announced it would purchase 1.7 million treatments of the COVID-19 antiviral treatment from drug company Merck, called molnupiravir.
Merck said last week that phase three trials indicated oral treatment was effective in treating COVID-19. Merck said data from the trial showed that 7.3% of people who received the treatment were hospitalized within 29 days, compared with 14.1% of people who received a placebo and were hospitalized or died at the end of the test.
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