Merck asks US FDA to authorize promising anti-COVID pill

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MATTHEW PERRONE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill against COVID-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-to-use weapon to the world’s arsenal against the pandemic.

If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration — a decision that could come in a matter of weeks — it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19. All other FDA-backed treatments against the disease require an IV or injection.

An antiviral pill that people could take at home to reduce their symptoms and speed recovery could prove groundbreaking, easing the crushing caseload on U.S. hospitals and helping to curb outbreaks in poorer countries with weak health care systems. It would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations.

The FDA will scrutinize company data on the safety and effectiveness of the drug, molnupiravir, before rendering a decision.



This undated image provided by Merck & Co. shows their new antiviral medication. The drugmaker has said its experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations and deaths. (Merck & Co. via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/merck-asks-fda-to-authorize-covid-pill-e731ada126414396b402c4dfc3cf8d2c

[StarryNite]

1. This could be huge!

I hope it turns out to be everything they are expecting from it.

"It would also bolster the two-pronged approach to the pandemic: treatment, by way of medication, and prevention, primarily through vaccinations."

[70sEraVet]

4. Saving lives is always a good thing, but unless I'm mistaken,

it won't contribute to stemming the spread of the disease, unless it is somehow tied to a vaccination.
I'm concerned that it will only encourage people avoid vaccination, because they can just take a pill to get better.
Am I wrong to look for a broken piece of glass in the punch bowl?

[Rebl2]

10. I agree

with you totally. It will be harder to get because you will have to go to a doctor to get a prescription and likely have to pay for it. It’s easier to just go get a FREE vaccine against Covid no doctor appointment needed.

[StarryNite]

12. But vaccinated people can still have breakthrough cases.

And some people due to other health issues cannot be vaccinated.

[Rebl2]

15. True, but

I am just speaking to the fact that anti vaxers will use it as an excuse not to get vaccinated. I think it will be great for people who can’t be vaccinated for health reasons or have breakthroughs.

[StarryNite]

11. Your concern is my concern.

I consider this pill as another layer in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. I still see vaccinations as the number one and most effective layer. But even if vaccinated one can still spread the disease. And there are a lot of breakthrough cases in the vaccinated and some of them require hospitalization and some do not survive. My daughter-in-law works with a woman whose vaccinated sister and brother-in-law recently died a week apart from Covid. Not only were they vaccinated but they had continued to take the other precautions such as mask wearing. Perhaps this pill could have saved them.

This pill will not take the place of vaccinations, masking, or social distancing. Many of the people who are not yet vaccinated have no intention of ever getting vaccinated. They are a lost cause. But let's get the pill out there if it proves to be safe and effective so that those of us who may have breakthrough cases can take them.

[hamsterjill]

14. I think anything reasonable in the arsenal to fight COVID

Is a good thing. Plus, I am hopeful that each step forward in any type of research will be a stepping stone to greater understanding to learn how to defeat this virus (and perhaps others) once and for all.

Each new breakthrough may very well lead to better understanding and further breakthroughs in science.

[StarryNite]

19. I agree.

[usaf-vet]

29. If they do approve a pill it will be interesting to watch how many of the non-vax will step.....

.... step right up and swallow a pill. Those will be the non-vax cowards who are afraid of NEEDLES. I bet the numbers will be high.

As a military medic, I sometimes "volunteered" to administer vaccines in the shot lines. We had to drag some kicking and screaming to step up and get the SHOT. Some would go weak-kneed when they were next. Some just plain fainted.

Watch if they step up and take a new minimally tested new pill; those will be the Trypanophobia folks.

[hamsterjill]

31. Needle phobia is a very real thing.

It’s very real and I suffer from it based on a childhood trauma. It’s more than a little fear of a needle stick for many of us and I don’t like to see Democrats making fun of people’s phobias.

If that makes you feel good, then so be it. But I feel like Dems should be a little more understanding about some of this.

[usaf-vet]

33. Listen I was making the point that all the non-vaxers scream that they won't get the vaccine because

1. It's not FDA approved

2. It might have side effects.

3. It violates your rights; it's your body you decide. Of course, the opposite is true if a woman chooses to have an abortion.

What other reasons have they given? What other reasons haven't they given?

I'M GIVING A REAL REASON SOME MAY NOT WANT THE VACCINE. Trypanophobia. I was NOT, NOT making fun of you or anyone else with actual phobias. I stated it as a true fact. As a fact, I have observed it in my former job.

I'm afraid of heights. I have Acrophobia. Also, I'm not too fond of small enclosed spaces. I'm Claustrophobic.

Two final points
1. we should be the nice guys while the republicans will lie, steal, cheat, mock people with congenital disabilities (Trump was making fun of a reporter), doing whatever it takes to win? Should we be nice until we no longer have a Democracy?

2. My wife and I adopted a child with a congenital disability. His life expectancy was his late teens. We kept him healthy until he passed away when he was 36.

You seriously miss judged the point I was trying to make.

[hamsterjill]

34. Thanks for clarifying.

My sympathies on the loss of your son.

[cojoel]

16. Maybe the pill only works...

...if the microchip was already installed by the vaccine?

[StarryNite]

20. LOL

The pill might also make the magnets stronger as well.

[usaf-vet]

32. Hey good point. So why don't we get some democratic states to pass a law that to vote you will be...

..... wanded like they do in the airport. Only people with the chip that was "injected" with the Covid vaccine can VOTE.

Non-VAXers will be turned away. Just like all the citizens that will also be denied the right to vote because they can afford to get a voter ID.

[barbtries]

22. no, you're right.

but in this country there are so many fucking covidiots they won't be vaccinated even if it means they have to die before their time, so...yeah, you're right.

it galls me no end that these assholes (including some of my own beloved family members) will be standing in line to get this pill but reject the vaccination because they're so propagandized they can't even apprehend their own illogic. THEY are the reason we can't have nice things!

AND. we'll be coping with COVID for the foreseeable future, no doubt in my mind about that. sigh

[HUAJIAO]

2. Wonder what the price will be.

[underpants]

3. Did you take THE PILL?

Oh, this should be fun on several levels.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. Anti science anti vaxxers gonna go anti-medicinal pills? Fun indeed.

Wont take the Jab? catch the fake virus. won’t take the Pill? catch the Death.

[barbtries]

23. i'd lay odds

they will take the pill. they will.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

28. Yes. When they get sick, in hospital...struggling for breath, they will, in a great final

stroke of hypocrisy, suddenly believe in science and take the pill.

And when they come home? At least a few may do some navel gazing about being so fucking stupid.

Or maybe not. Depends how stupid one really is, individually, and how much value to place on their own lives, I guess.

[luvs2sing]

9. Ooooooh..and it's a RED pill, too!

[underpants]

17. BONUS!!

[PSPS]

6. "to reduce their symptoms and speed recovery" is nice, but the vaccine is best.

[CrispyQ]

7. Isn't calling a Covid treatment "anti-Covid" a little misleading?

"Anti-Covid" makes it sound like the pill has vaccine qualities. I know I'm being picky, but why can't headline writers be more accurate?

Now what will the anti-vaxers do when they get the Covid? Will they trust the pill?

[PSPS]

8. You're right. This just mimics the palliative effects already afforded by the vaccine.

The only logical target for this pill is the MAGA anti-vax group who already is committed to fallacy that there is no covid. This could be quite dangerous because it would give the impression that the vaccine isn't necessary and, thus, lower the overall vaccination rate in the population.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

26. Would say, sir, that a pill is a pill, for treatment. Even the MAGAs will get that, or

if they don’t they might as well chuck away all their medicinal pills, along with their hypocrisy.

I see nothing but good in this pill for treatment, as with any other illness, medically…and politically.

Funny and sad…having to even mention politics in same sentence as medicine.

[Lasher]

30. A more accurate comparison is with monoclonal antibody infusions

They are prescribed after an individual has tested positive for COVID. These pills would be taken in conjunction with, or instead of, such therapy.

[Rebl2]

13. I don't know

why they would trust it since it is a totally new pill that a pharmaceutical company came up with so quickly. Isn’t that what anti vaxers keep saying-the vaccine was made and approved to quickly? Why wouldn’t they say the same about this pill.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

27. Believe they might actually understand it's ...a pill...for treatment.

Can ditch the horse medicine for human medicine…in pill form.

Or, true, could take the hypocrisy up another notch, but then every pill in a magats medicine cabinet will remind them of that hypocrisy.

Or they could come to their senses, beaten over the head with…a pill.

Maybe half and half could go, either way?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

25. True, sir. Simply "covid treatment" would seem enough, as in "cancer treatment".

Ever heard cancer treatment called anti-cancer treatment. 😂

[Sugarmaggie]

18. Sadly they would rather take ivermectin

Even when this is approved. You can’t reason with Freedumb.

[nowforever]

21. Mutagenic

The mutagenic properties that contribute to pill's effectiveness against covid replication can induce mutation in other cells. Animal studies indicate this, so rushing approval is not wise.

[ebbie15644]

24. The Biden pill?