https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-oral-covid-treatment-yields-trial.amp
This drug caused a significant drop in patients' viral load after five days of treatment with it, Merck said at a meeting with infectious disease experts.
This Phase 2a test—drug trials have three stages before a product can be approved—was carried out among 202 non-hospitalized people with symptoms of COVID-19.
There was no alert in terms of safety, and of four serious adverse events that were reported, none were considered to be related to taking this drug, Ridgeback said.
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The findings of this study—a quicker decrease in viral load among individuals with early-stage COVID-19 who are treated with molnupiravir—are promising, said William Fischer, lead investigator of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina.
"If supported by additional studies, (they) could have important public health implications, particularly as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to spread and evolve globally," Fischer added.
Merck is also working on another oral COVID treatment called MK-711.
Preliminary results from clinical trials with it show a more than 50 percent reduction in risk of death or respiratory trouble in patients hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID-19, the company said in January.