Gilead Sciences Inc. on Tuesday unveiled data from the first human study of its experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral, saying the results in healthy volunteers cleared the way for two large Phase III trials of the drug that have begun enrolling patients.
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The antiviral pill, brand named Lagevrio, could not demonstrate benefits in treatment of COVID patients who do not need oxygen support and are at risk of their disease worsening, the European Medicines Agency said.
Merck & Co. Inc. said on Tuesday its COVID-19 pill was not effective at cutting the risk of coronavirus infections in people living with someone infected with the virus.
The company said today it would take legal action against some pharmaceutical companies after noticing that some manufacturers were supplying COVID-19 drugs to some provinces and cities saying the medicines were authorized by Merck.
Merck & Co. on Thursday reported better-than-expected third-quarter sales and profit on a jump in demand for blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda and human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil.
Merck’s exceptional revenue growth in 2021 and the first half of 2022 came thanks to three big brands, one of which is not even approved by the FDA yet.
The drugmaker said in a statement that it reached a cooperation framework agreement with Sinopharm that grants the Chinese company distribution and exclusive import rights of the medicine in the China mainland market.
Researchers at Case Western University looked at the real-world experiences of 13,644 patients who were treated with Paxlovid or Lagevrio (molnupiravir) during the first half of 2022. The study was intended to determine the prevalence of three types of rebound outcomes with these two therapies, each of which has emergency use authorizations as treatments for COVID-19. In that study (currently in preprint on medRxiv, co-author Pamela Davis, M.D. and colleagues found that the 7-day and 30-day rebound rates associated with Paxlovid treatments, respectively, were 3.53% and 5.4% for COVID-19 reinfection; 2.31% and 5.87% for COVID-19 symptoms; and 0.44% and 0.77% for hospitalizations.