[ad_1]
Merck this week announced a new pill to treat COVID-19 and its emergency use authorization application, which Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health says may hit the market. ‘by the end of 2021.
“If everything works as expected, ie emergency use authorization, robust phase three clinical data and all signals look good,” he told Fox News on Sunday Live “. “I think this is something that we hope to see on the shelves by the end of the year or that we can prescribe to patients. And that would be a game changer.”
Dr Adalja, Merck Advisory Board Member, explained that this treatment has been in the works “for some time” and is now showing promising results. The pill will mainly treat patients with acute infections, or those who are not vaccinated, to keep people out of the hospital.
MERCK REQUESTS EMERGENCY APPROVAL FOR COVID-19 ANTIVIRAL PILL
Once the pill is ingested, Adalja explained, its function is to prevent the coronavirus from replicating and ending its life cycle. The doctor compared the drug to Tamiflu which is taken for several consecutive days.
Even Dr Anthony Fauci gave his public seal of approval to CNN’s “State of the Union”, calling the results “quite impressive”, but Adalja insisted the treatment still isn’t. an alternative to the vaccine.
“Prevention is always better than treatment,” he said. “It’s great that we have treatment now, but prevention will always be the priority, especially with safe and effective vaccines like we have in this country.”
Adalja said Pfizer also has a COVID-19 treatment drug on the way which will hopefully begin to build an antiviral “portfolio” in medicine.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“It’s part of making COVID something that we can treat like other respiratory infections day in and day out,” he said. “We are aiming for a better future with a much more manageable COVID-19. “
[ad_2]
Source link