As time passes, it’s nice to see that scientists are finding more and more medical ways of tackling the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Merck pharma group came up with a simple way for people to fight COVID by simply ingesting the molnupiravir pill.
It’s 2022 now, and Merck expects huge sales of its COVID pill this year. The expectation of the company is to make somewhere between $5 billion and $6 billion from sales, according to CNBC.com.
1.4 million courses delivered in the US
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) authorized Merck’s COVID pill last year in December. Since that moment, Merck managed to deliver 1.4 million courses in the US. Most of the sales until now had been in the US, Japan, and the UK.
The most important aspect is that molnupiravir can reduce the death risk significantly for those infected with COVID. CEO Rob Davis declared as CNBC quotes:
The fact that molnupiravir does reduce the risk of death by 90%, we could have a meaningful impact in helping patients.
Merck’s pill is effective against Omicron, perhaps the most contagious COVID variant out there. The strain has caused a more massive surge of infections with the coronavirus across the world than ever before.
CEO Rob Davis declared for CNBC’s Meg Tirrell, as the publication itself quotes:
We’ve shown that molnupiravir works against omicron, which is important against that variant,
And obviously we’ll have to see how this plays out and what is the initial uptake, but right now we feel we’re off to a good start.
If we take a look at data brought by worldometers.info, we find out that there have been more than 387.6 million infections with the coronavirus across the world since the pandemic began. Also, more than 5.7 million deaths have been reported.
