Britain is the first country to allow pill for the treatment of Covid from the drug maker company Merck even though there is no clarity of how effective and efficient it is going to be.
The pill has been authorized for adults tested positive for covid, over the age of 18 and more, and with at least one serious factor which could develop a serious illness later on like heart attacks, heart diseases or obesity, etc. Molnupiravir is given to patients with moderate or mild symptoms of coronavirus. The four pills of Molnupiravir are given twice a day for five days straight.
Pills are the most efficient and easy treatment for any disease, so if such a treatment could be provided for Covid too, it would prove to be very helpful in the ongoing covid situation. Hospitals loads would get reduced, lives could be saved, and outbreaks in underprivileged countries could be prevented. Until the pill proves to work, the safer options to opt for would be to get vaccinated and get treatment early on.
Molnupiravir needs to be reviewed with the USA, the European Union, and other places before it is set to be used by everyone. The USA Food and Drug Administration said in October that an independent panel consisting of experts would help check the efficiency of the pill at the end of November.
Merck announced that only ten million treatments could be provided this year through their pills in limited amounts. This has already been bought by the governments of different countries to fight off covid as soon as possible.
Four hundred eighty thousand courses of Molnupiravir were secured by the U.K. government, which would be offered to the Britain citizens in winter.
Sajid Javid, who is the secretary of British health, said, “Today is a historic day for our country England, as the U.K. is now the first-ever country in the world to approve an antiviral pill that can be taken at home for coronavirus.”
“We are working at a similar pace across the government and with the NHS to set out plans to deploy and provide Molnupiravir to patients after a national study as soon as possible,” he said in a statement while referring to the National Health Service of the U.K. Doctors said the treatment would be particularly significant and effective for the people who do not respond well to vaccination, for example, people sho get blood clots.
Merck has already collected data and results from September treatments that show the hospitalization cut and death in early symptomatic patients. These results have not been reviewed and published in a journal.
With the effects produced by this drug, some risk factors are involved, which further need studying and review. These include the genetic activity that could cause mutations resulting in several tumors or defects in birth. This is because the drug’s primary target is an enzyme that the covid mainly uses to divide and reproduce, insert defects in it and slow down its efficiency to spread and overcome the basic human unit of life, cells.
This side effect or threat was considered false by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency who claim to have made a deep and keen study of its effects. They have officially announced Molnupiravir as a safe choice for treatment.
“Studies in rats have shown that Molnupiravir pill may cause harmful effects to the unborn offspring, although this was only at higher doses than those doses that will be shared to humans, and these effects were tested on animals, but0 nothing was observed in other animals, which means animals will not be either under any threat or protection” the agency mentioned in an email.
In the trials, pregnant women were not tested but all others. These other couples were given full instructions to take help of contraception or abstain from unprotected sex. Merck has made it very clear that it will be safe to use until instructions are followed.
This pill was first made to use for flu under the USA funds, but in 2019 Emory University decided to reuse the drug for Covid treatment. After the decision, they authorized the drug and partnered with Merck.
In the previous week, Merck has given free passes to other drug companies to make their own pill. This good gesture will prove to be beneficial for underprivileged countries around the world. Unless the World health organization considers coronavirus as a global emergency, Merck will not be able to get any advantages for it; this was said by he a U.N.-backed group called The Medicines Patent Pool.
But this deal eventually came to an end when activists spoke up for all the middle countries which were excluded, like Brazil and China.
Even after this, Merch has been advised to share its formula with anyone who needs help, and even with technology, Merch is advised to help. This is something that even vaccine makers did not do.
Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni
who is a senior health adviser at the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said, “Unlike the grotesquely unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the most underprivileged countries will not have to wait at the back of a long queue for Molnupiravir,”
Less than one percentage point of the world’s coronavirus vaccines have been provided to the poor and underprivileged countries, and experts are advising and hoping that easier treatments will help them fight the pandemic.
The suicide rate fell overall during a pandemic.
During the pandemic, one would expect the suicide rate to increase, but in actual it decreased by three percentage points in 2020. In the first year of a pandemic, the suicide rate was more, but now it has decreased; this is because people are adapting to the situations and dealing with them bravely. At CDC National Center for Health Statistics also stated that the reports of Hispanic men have increased five percentage points from 2019 to the year 2020. The overall rate has increased by 13 percentage points in males of age 10 to 14 and about five percentage points in the menage group 25 to 34.
