Mer­ck shares slide as re­sponse to its oral Covid an­tivi­ral plunges on lat­est up­date ahead of ad­comm

Af­ter a sec­ond look, Mer­ck says that its big break­through on the Covid front doesn’t look so good. An FDA ad­comm of out­side ex­perts will take a look at the num­bers on Tues­day and most like­ly rec­om­mend an EUA re­strict­ed to cer­tain groups of peo­ple (i.e. not preg­nant women or chil­dren).

The phar­ma gi­ant up­dat­ed its da­ta on its oral an­tivi­ral mol­nupi­ravir on Fri­day, and said there’s a rel­a­tive rate re­duc­tion of 30% for hos­pi­tal­iza­tions and deaths — a sharp plunge from the 50% rel­a­tive rate re­port­ed at the be­gin­ning of Oc­to­ber dur­ing their in­ter­im read­out.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER