Oral Covid treatment yields promising trial data: Drugmakers

San Francisco - The drug caused a significant drop in patients’ viral load after five days of treatment with it.

German pharmaceutical giant Merck and a US partner reported promising results on Saturday in trials of a drug administered orally to fight Covid-19, saying it helps reduce patients’ viral load.

“At a time where there is unmet need for antiviral treatments against SARS-CoV-2, we are encouraged by these preliminary data,” said Wendy Painter, chief medical officer of the US firm, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

In January, Merck halted work on two Covid vaccine candidates but has pressed on with research into two products to treat the disease, including a pill-based one called molnupiravir, which it has developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

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.

Anti-viral oral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are sometimes prescribed for seasonal flu but researchers have yet to come up with something similar to fight the coronavirus.