Covid-19 roundup: Pfiz­er, Mer­ck start late-stage tri­als for Covid-19 pills; Mer­ck be­gins PhI­II study on post-ex­po­sure treat­ment

Phar­ma gi­ants Pfiz­er and Mer­ck an­nounced to­day that they are mov­ing for­ward with Phase II and III clin­i­cal tri­als for an­tivi­ral treat­ments against Covid-19 — a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the more than year-long bat­tle against the pan­dem­ic.

The drugs rep­re­sent two of the lead­ing ef­forts to treat Covid-19 with a pill, a po­ten­tial break­through giv­en that all doc­tors and hos­pi­tals have avail­able to­day need to be ei­ther in­fused or in­ject­ed – and they have been in short sup­ply. Out­side of the vac­cines, few prod­ucts have been ap­proved to fight the virus and a pill could present the best weapon to treat new­ly in­fect­ed or ex­posed pa­tients be­fore they wind up in a hos­pi­tal.

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