Merck is the latest pharmaceutical company to rush an experimental drug to market to treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Merck announced Friday that it has developed an experimental oral drug that will reduce hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in people recently infected with Covid.
The company will ask the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency authorization to distribute the capsules.
The drug — which some compare to Ivermectin and Tamiflu — is intended as a treatment for people with Covid symptoms.
Former FDA Director Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the trial results are clearly “profoundly” positive.
Merck allegedly tested the drug on 700 unvaccinated people diagnosed with Covid-19 in a global study.
The volunteers were all considered “high risk” due to factors like age, and pre-existing medical conditions.
Merck’s study found that 7% of volunteers in the control group that received the drug were hospitalized, and none of them died. While 14% were hospitalized and eight people died in the placebo group.
Dr. Gottlieb calls the test results a “a profound game-changer that we have an oral pill that had this kind of effect on patients who are already symptomatic.”
Dr. Gottlieb also noted that the team that developed the drug “also invented the first successful antibody against ebola so this is a very good drug-development team.”
The drug is intended to be taken in addition to the mRNA vaccines.
"This is a phenomenal result. This is a profound game-changer to have an oral pill that had this kind of effect, this magnitude of effect in patients who are at high-risk who are already symptomatic," says @ScottGottliebMD on news of $MRK's #covid19 antiviral study result. pic.twitter.com/2cfI3BFQUd
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) October 1, 2021
