Covid-19 roundup: Ahead of FDA, EU signs off on Mer­ck­'s an­tivi­ral; Dis­tri­b­u­tion of mAbs in US see first uptick in 7 weeks

The Eu­ro­pean Med­i­cines Agency on Fri­day said that Mer­ck’s an­tivi­ral mol­nupi­ravir can now be used to treat adults with Covid-19 who do not re­quire sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen and who are at in­creased risk of de­vel­op­ing se­vere dis­ease.

The pill, known com­mer­cial­ly in Eu­rope as Lagevrio, has not yet been au­tho­rized in the US and has to be tak­en twice a day for 5 days. The EMA said it should be ad­min­is­tered as soon as pos­si­ble af­ter di­ag­no­sis of Covid, and with­in 5 days of the start of symp­toms. The quick au­tho­riza­tion is based on da­ta show­ing the drug re­duced the chance that a new­ly di­ag­nosed Covid-19 pa­tient would be hos­pi­tal­ized or die by 50%, ac­cord­ing to da­ta pre­sent­ed by the com­pa­ny in Oc­to­ber.

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