While Merck was the first to roll out its anti-Covid therapy, called molnupiravir, Pfizer has announced promising results of its own pill, called Paxlovid. Here’s all you need to know.
Both pills — which are in the investigational stage since their final trial results are yet to be released — have claims to being path-breaking medications in their own right. Merck says that molnupiravir is the “first oral antiviral medicine authorised for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid-19″ while Pfizer states that Paxlovid “would be the first oral antiviral of its kind” based on the strategy it deploys to counter the disease.
As for trial findings, the Pfizer drug reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 per cent in non-hospitalised high-risk adults as compared with the placebo group.
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The molnupiravir trial showed the pill reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death by about 50 per cent as compared to the placebo group. The company said that through Day 29, no deaths were reported in patients who received molnupiravir, as compared to eight deaths in patients who received placebo. Merck, too, was advised by US regulators to halt trials thanks to its “positive results”.
