Merck in Supply Agreement With Canada for Antiviral Medicine for Covid-19

   By Michael Dabaie 
 

Merck & Co. Inc. said it is in a supply agreement with the Canadian government for up to 1 million patient courses of molnupiravir, its investigational oral antiviral medicine for the treatment of Covid-19.

Merck is developing molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

The government of Canada secured access in 2022 to 500,000 patient courses, with options for up to 500,000 more, pending Health Canada approval.

In November, Merck Canada filed the final wave of the molnupiravir rolling submission to Health Canada, which will decide on the therapy's approval when all necessary evidence has been reviewed.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee recently voted 13-10 that the known and potential benefits of molnupiravir outweigh its known and potential risks for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in high-risk adult patients. While the FDA isn't bound by the committee's guidance, it takes that advice into consideration.

Write to Michael Dabaie at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 03, 2021 14:45 ET (19:45 GMT)

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