 U.S.
to buy about 1.7 million courses of Merck's COVID-19 treatment for $1.2
billion
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[June 09, 2021]
(Reuters) -Merck & Co Inc said on Wednesday
the U.S. government has agreed to buy about 1.7 million courses of the
company's experimental COVID-19 treatment, molnupiravir, for about $1.2
billion, if it is authorized in the country.
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 Molnupiravir is an experimental antiviral therapy Merck is
developing with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for the treatment of
COVID-19 patients who are not hospitalized.
The drug is currently being assessed in a late-stage trial for its
potential to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death.
Merck said it expects to file for the emergency use authorization of
molnupiravir in the second half of 2021 at the earliest, pending
favorable results from the trial.
The drug is administered orally in capsule form every 12 hours for 5
days and a treatment course contains 10 doses in total.
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 Merck expects to have more than
10 million courses of therapy available by the
end of this year and said it was in discussions
with other countries interested in advance
purchase agreements for molnupiravir.
Merck has decided to focus on its drugs for
COVID-19 after two vaccines failed to generate
desired immune responses, prompting it to
abandon the program in January.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shounak Dasgupta)
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