Merck says its anti-Covid pill cuts hospitalisation, death risk by 30%

Merck & Co Inc said on Friday its experimental Covid-19 pill reduced the risk of hospitalisation and death by 30 per cent in a study, according to data from all the patients enrolled in a late-stage study.

The company said the data on the drug molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, had been submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration ahead of a meeting of its expert advisers on Tuesday.

A planned interim analysis of the data last month showed that 7.3 per cent of those given molnupiravir twice a day for five days were hospitalised and none had died by 29 days after the treatment. That compared with a hospitalisation rate of 14.1 per cent for placebo patients.

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In the updated data, 6.8 per cent of those given molnupiravir were hospitalized and one person died, while the other placebo group had a hospitalization rate of 9.7 per cent.