Mer­ck falls short in PhI­II Covid-19 pro­phy­lax­is tri­al, join­ing Pfiz­er

Mer­ck took an­oth­er swing at bat to bol­ster its case for its Covid-19 an­tivi­ral — and that swing turned in­to yet an­oth­er miss.

The phar­ma gi­ant said Tues­day morn­ing that its an­tivi­ral mol­nupi­ravir, brand­ed as Lagevrio, failed to show “a sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant re­duc­tion in the risk of COVID-19 fol­low­ing house­hold ex­po­sure to an­oth­er in­di­vid­ual with COVID-19” in a Phase III tri­al.

The study en­rolled more than 1,500 par­tic­i­pants — all who lived with some­one who was new­ly di­ag­nosed with Covid-19. That house­hold mem­ber was al­so show­ing at least one symp­tom or sign of the dis­ease, and had not had said symp­toms for more than five days.

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