Merck anti-viral COVID-19 Pill.

[rodericb]

Take a pill!

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharma...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/us/merck-antivi...

[V88Dicky]

IverMERCKTin?

[P-Jay]

rodericb said:

Take a pill!

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharma...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/us/merck-antivi...

I spotted that lunchtime.

Sounds like good news to me, the only problem being that whilst the world seemed untied to produce Covid vaccines for a few quid a pop, that goodwill has come to an end. The US has ordered 1.7m courses of the drug at $700 a pop.

I can't see the NHS being able to dole them out to everyone with Covid.

[BabySharkDooDooDooDooDooDoo]

Cheaper than remdesivir ($2000ish per course I seem to remember!)

[Dromedary66]

P-Jay said:

I spotted that lunchtime.

Sounds like good news to me, the only problem being that whilst the world seemed untied to produce Covid vaccines for a few quid a pop, that goodwill has come to an end. The US has ordered 1.7m courses of the drug at $700 a pop.

I can't see the NHS being able to dole them out to everyone with Covid.

The US has the most expensive healthcare in the world. I would expect people who are prescribed those pills would either be getting a big bill or their insurance will be.

[Jenny Tailor]

Just for clarity - USA Merck is a different company from Germany Merck.

They used to be the same company - but when the war broke out - the USA Govt split the USA arm of the company.

Germany Merck is now known as EMD in the USA.

[Vanden Saab]

A drug that works by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus, is it just me?

[voyds9]

Vanden Saab said:

A drug that works by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus, is it just me?

Well the US does believe in GM products

[PeteinSQ]

P-Jay said:

rodericb said:

Take a pill!

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharma...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/us/merck-antivi...

I spotted that lunchtime.

Sounds like good news to me, the only problem being that whilst the world seemed untied to produce Covid vaccines for a few quid a pop, that goodwill has come to an end. The US has ordered 1.7m courses of the drug at $700 a pop.

I can't see the NHS being able to dole them out to everyone with Covid.

NHS would negotiate a much lower price. We won't need that many doses anyway, how many patients are being hospitalised now and how many of them are actually really serious?

[rodericb]

Doctor John Campbell on this new pill: