WHO OKs mol­nupi­ravir as treat­ment for Covid-19, af­ter new da­ta from In­dia

The WHO up­dat­ed its guide­lines on Wednes­day to rec­om­mend mol­nupi­ravir, Mer­ck’s an­tivi­ral pill, for treat­ing pa­tients new­ly di­ag­nosed with Covid-19.

It’s the first Covid-19 pill rec­om­mend­ed by the WHO, com­ing be­fore any rec­om­men­da­tion around Pfiz­er’s Paxlovid, de­spite con­tin­ued ques­tions about the pre­cise mag­ni­tude of ben­e­fit and the risks as­so­ci­at­ed with the Mer­ck drug.

The new de­ci­sion, how­ev­er, comes af­ter a tri­al in In­dia on a gener­ic ver­sion of mol­nupi­ravir found the pill re­duced the risk of hos­pi­tal­iza­tion from Covid-19 by 65%. Al­though not con­clu­sive, it was an­oth­er da­ta point in the on­go­ing de­bate over mol­nupi­ravir’s ef­fi­ca­cy. Mer­ck’s ini­tial da­ta showed the pill cut the risk of hos­pi­tal­iza­tion among high-risk Covid-19 pa­tients in half, but lat­er analy­ses of the same tri­al cut that num­ber to just 30% — a drop the com­pa­ny strug­gled to ex­plain to the FDA.

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