The world could soon be armed with another tool to fight the coronavirus pandemic: a twice-daily pill that has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death among people infected with the coronavirus.
The drug, molnupiravir, offers another tool alongside vaccines for countries to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what you need to know about it:
Molnupiravir is an antiviral pill by pharmaceutical giant Merck that aims to prevent mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 from becoming severe cases that result in hospitalization or death. People who have COVID-19 take the drug twice a day for five days, starting within five days of the onset of symptoms. It was shown in an international clinical trial of 775 high-risk, unvaccinated people to cut the risk of hospitalization and death in half (the participants had at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19, such as obesity or advanced age).