Indian drugmakers get close to nod for Merck's Covid antiviral Molnupiravir

The significance of the Molnupiravir approval is that it could offer an affordable oral drug to treat Covid-19, and may even be effective against the Omicron variant

With the expert group having advised the US regulator to recommend the use of Merck’s antiviral drug molnupiravir for Covid, drug makers here are awaiting a final decision from the Indian regulator.

Molnupiravir approval assumes significance. It could offer an affordable oral drug to treat Covid. The drug developed by Merck with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics targets part of the virus called the ribonucleic acid polymerase. This part of the virus has not changed much after mutations in the Omicron variant.

However, according to the recent data published by Merck, the drug was found to be significantly less effective than previously thought.