Merck’s antiviral pill reduces hospitalization of Covid patients, a possible game-changer for treatment? + some related studies - October 1, 2021

[sharon sanders]

As we have said many, many times - we cover all potential drugs, therapies, vaccine candidates, natural treatments - and the "good" news and the "bad" news about these. We do not promote anything. We report. We do not pick winners and losers. We are not "woke" and do not do cancel culture here.

If you any medical questions, please consult your medical practitioner.


Merck’s antiviral pill reduces hospitalization of Covid patients, a possible game-changer for treatment

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By Matthew Herper Oct. 1, 2021

An investigational antiviral pill reduced the chances that patients newly diagnosed with Covid-19 would be hospitalized by about 50%, a finding that could give doctors a desperately needed new way to treat the sick, the drug maker Merck announced Friday.

A five-day course of molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduced both hospitalization and death compared to a placebo. In the placebo group, 53 patients, or 14.1%, were hospitalized or died. For those who received the drug, 28, or 7.3%, were hospitalized or died.

A simple oral medication to help treat Covid-19 has been an elusive goal since the start of the pandemic. Other drugs, including Gilead’s remdesivir, have also been shown to reduce hospitalizations if given early in the course of disease, but must be given intravenously.

more...

https://www.statnews.com/2021/10/01...tients-a-possible-game-changer-for-treatment/

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Antimicrob Agents Chemother . Human Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetics of Molnupiravir, a Novel Broad-Spectrum Oral Antiviral Agent with Activity Against SARS-CoV-2

Molecules . Nucleoside Analogs and Nucleoside Precursors as Drugs in the Fight against SARS-CoV-2 and Other Coronaviruses

J Biol Chem . Molnupiravir promotes SARS-CoV-2 mutagenesis via the RNA template

J Infect Dis . Molnupiravir inhibits the replication of the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs) in a hamster infection model

Curr Opin Virol . Developing a direct acting, orally available antiviral agent in a pandemic: the evolution of molnupiravir as a potential treatment for COVID-19

EBioMedicine . The combined treatment of Molnupiravir and Favipiravir results in a potentiation of antiviral efficacy in a SARS-CoV-2 hamster infection model

 

[Mary Wilson]

Why Merck’s Covid-19 pill molnupiravir could be so important

Oct 1, 2021, 4:30pm EDT
By Umair Irfan

... And while $700 for a course of molnupiravir isn’t exactly cheap, a transfusion alone can cost $1,000, and that’s on top of the cost of the drugs delivered intravenously. A course of monoclonal antibodies can cost $2,100, while remdesivir can cost $3,100.
...
https://www.vox.com/22704265/merck-covid-19-antiviral-pill-molnupiravir-treatment-drug

 

[Emily]

Really needs peer review and disclosure of what was used as a 'placebo.'

"The data from the study were made public in a press release and have not yet been peer-reviewed. But even top-line figures were encouraging. In the first 29 days of the study, there were no deaths reported in the group treated with molnupiravir and eight deaths reported among patients who received placebo."

"An adverse event, or bad outcome, occurred in 35% of those who received molnupiravir and 40% of those who received placebo. Only 1.3% of molnupiravir-treated subjects discontinued the drug because of an adverse event, compared to 3.4% who discontinued placebo."

 

[sharon sanders]

1 August 2021

β-D-N[SUP]4[/SUP]- hydrocytidine Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Through Lethal Mutagenesis But Is Also Mutagenic To Mammalian Cells


Shuntai Zhou, Collin S Hill, Sanjay Sarkar, Longping V Tse, Blaide M D Woodburn, Raymond F Schinazi, Timothy P Sheahan, Ralph S Baric, Mark T Heise, Ronald Swanstrom

​​​​​​​The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 224, Issue 3, 1 August 2021, Pages 415–419, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab247
Published:

07 May 2021 Abstract

Mutagenic ribonucleosides can act as broad-based antiviral agents. They are metabolized to the active ribonucleoside triphosphate form and concentrate in genomes of RNA viruses during viral replication. β-D-N[SUP]4[/SUP]-hydroxycytidine (NHC, initial metabolite of molnupiravir) is >100-fold more active than ribavirin or favipiravir against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), with antiviral activity correlated to the level of mutagenesis in virion RNA. However, NHC also displays host mutational activity in an animal cell culture assay, consistent with RNA and DNA precursors sharing a common intermediate of a ribonucleoside diphosphate. These results indicate highly active mutagenic ribonucleosides may hold risk for the host.

more..

https://academic.oup.com/jid/article...009?login=true

 

[sharon sanders]

Merck denies:

snip

However, a Merck spokesperson told Fox News that tests in animals indicate otherwise: "The totality of the data from these studies indicates that molnupiravir is not mutagenic or genotoxic in in vivo mammalian systems," a statement reads in part.

https://news.yahoo.com/merck-covid-19-pill-could-175652547.html