According to a study, Merck has hit a blow in the fight against the coronavirus. As the US pharmaceutical company announced, its new drug Molnupiravir halves the risk of very severe courses.
According to a clinical study, a new corona drug from the US pharmaceutical company Merck significantly reduces the likelihood of very severe courses in high-risk patients. The company, which is also known as MSD, announced on Friday that the company, which is also known as MSD, said it wanted to try to deploy it in the USA as soon as possible and also submit corresponding applications to authorities around the world. The medicine is given as a pill.
In the study, corona patients with mild to moderate symptoms who were treated with a placebo had to go to hospital in 14.1 percent of cases within 29 days or had died, Merck explained. In the group of patients who were treated with the drug molnupiravir, 7.3 percent were only about half as many.
Merck shares rise eight percent
The numbers are based on an evaluation of the data from 775 corona patients. All subjects had at least one risk factor that makes a severe course likely. In the test group that received the Merck drug, there were no deaths during the study period. Eight people who received the placebo have since died. The Merck share jumped in the pre-market trading on Friday at times by around eight percent.
Remdesivir is the only officially approved corona drug in the EU. However, some others are already being used, such as dexamethasone and antibody agents.
See in the video: Karl Lauterbach shared a selfie of himself and virologist Christian Drosten on Twitter on Thursday evening. The picture of the two Corona experts immediately went viral on Twitter. You can see the funniest tweets in the video.
