Pharmaceutical company Merck has said it will seek authorisation in the US for an oral drug for Covid-19, after the pill showed "compelling results" in a clinical trial.
The experimental drug, molnupiravir, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death when administered to high-risk patients early in the disease, Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said in a statement. "At the interim analysis, 7.3% of patients who received molnupiravir were hospitalised through Day 29, compared with 14.1% of placebo-treated patients who were hospitalised or died." There were no deaths in the molnupiravir group.