Why New Pills to Treat Covid Could Be Game Changers: QuickTake

The U.K. has become the first country in the world to approve an antiviral pill by Merck & Co. that has been touted as a potential game changer in the fight against Covid-19. The drug, molnupiravir, is now authorized for use in people with mild to moderate Covid and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness. Pfizer Inc. reported good results from its own Covid-19 pill, Paxlovid, and planned to seek emergency use authorization from the U.S. as soon as possible. In the case of molnupiravir, the promise of a drug that patients can easily get and take at home prompted some governments to order supplies even before most regulators have decided whether to approve its use.

It’s the chemical name for a medicine originally developed to treat influenza that’s given orally in a capsule. It inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid, by a mechanism known as “lethal mutagenesis.” In simple terms, it causes the machinery that reproduces the virus’s genetic material to make mistakes, thereby rendering the copies defective. The drug was discovered at Emory University in Atlanta, and was developed by Kenilworth, New Jersey-based Merck and Miami-based Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP.