The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday authorized Merck’s Covid pill for high risk adults amid a winter surge of cases driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
The decision to grant an emergency use authorization came a day after the agency gave a green light to a similar but more effective pill developed by Pfizer.
“Today’s authorization provides an additional treatment option against the Covid-19 virus in the form of a pill that can be taken orally,” said FDA scientist Patrizia Cavazzoni.
The pill developed by Merck, which is known as MSD outside the US and Canada, is taken within five days of symptom onset and was shown in a trial of 1,400 participants to reduce Covid hospitalizations and deaths by 30 percent among at-risk people.
Pfizer’s pill reduced the same outcomes by almost 90 percent.
While vaccines and boosters remain the foremost tools in the fight against the virus, experts have welcomed the addition of new oral treatments, which should eventually be easy to access at pharmacies following a prescription.
Until now, the main treatments have been synthetic antibodies or Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir, which are administered by infusion.
Because neither Pfizer nor Merck’s treatments target the ever-mutating spike protein that dots the surface of the virus, they should be more able to withstand new variants, such as Omicron.
Both companies have said early lab testing has borne out this hypothesis.
While both treatments were found to be generally safe in clinical trials, more potential concerns have been raised about Merck’s pill, called molnupiravir.
Safety concerns
The FDA has not authorized Merck’s pill for people under 18 because it may affect bone and cartilage growth.
It is not recommended for use in pregnant women because of the potential fetal harm which was identified in animal testing, but doctors can still decide if the benefits outweigh the risks in individual cases.
Independent experts convened by the FDA narrowly voted in favor of authorizing molnupiravir in early December. Several who voted “no” highlighted the potential risks.
Preliminary data about its efficacy was more encouraging, suggesting a 50 percent reduction in severe Covid, but this was later downgraded to 30 percent after the final analysis included more cases.
The FDA did not convene a panel of experts to discuss Pfizer’s pill, instead opting to authorize it without seeking their advice.
Eight capsules of molnupiravir are taken orally for five days, for a total of 40 capsules.
The US has paid for 3.1 million courses of Merck’s treatment, for about $2.2 billion, and 10 million courses of Pfizer’s for $5.3 billion.
Molnupiravir works by incorporating itself into the genome of the virus, causing mutations that prevent viral replication.
The drug has previously been authorized in Britain and Denmark.

News
Smart contact lenses for cancer diagnostics and screening
Scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed a contact lens that can capture and detect exosomes, nanometer-sized vesicles found in bodily secretions which have the potential for being diagnostic cancer [...]
Novel Nanoplatform Found Effective Against Esophageal Cancer
Among the total number of deaths caused by different types of cancer, esophageal cancer is the sixth most significant. Several conventional treatments, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery have multiple side effects, including off-target [...]
Stem Cell Membrane-Coated Nanoparticles in Tumor Therapy
Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles, applied in targeted drug delivery strategies, combine the intrinsic advantages of synthetic nanoparticles and cell membranes. Although stem cell-based delivery systems were highlighted for their targeting capability in tumor therapy, inappropriate [...]
The TB Vaccine Mysteriously Protects Against Lots of Things. Now We Know Why
When babies in the African countries of Guinea Bissau and Uganda were given the tuberculosis vaccine, something remarkable happened. Instead of the vaccine only protecting against the target bacteria – Myocbacterium tuberculosis – the tuberculosis vaccine offered broad protection against a [...]
Extinct Pathogens Ushered The Fall of Ancient Civilizations, Scientists Say
Thousands of years ago, across the Eastern Mediterranean, multiple Bronze Age civilizations took a distinct turn for the worse at around the same time. The Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Akkadian Empire both collapsed, and there was [...]
The Origins of Covid-19 Are More Complicated Than Once Thought
IN OCTOBER 2014, virologist Edward Holmes took a tour of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, a once relatively overlooked city of about 11 million people in the central Chinese province of Hubei. The market would [...]
Self-Healable, Human-Like Artificial Skin
Self-healable ionic sensing materials with fatigue resistance are imperative in robotics and soft electronics for extended service life. The existing artificial ionic skins with self-healing capacity were prepared by network reconfiguration, constituting low-energy amorphous [...]
Nanoparticles increase light scattering, boost solar cell performance
As demand for solar energy rises around the world, scientists are working to improve the performance of solar devices—important if the technology is to compete with traditional fuels. But researchers face theoretical limits on [...]
Scientists Use Shrimp Shell Nanoparticles to Strengthen Cement
When shrimp shell nanoparticles were mixed into cement paste, the material became substantially stronger — researchers propose an innovation that could lead to less seafood waste and fewer carbon dioxide emissions from concrete production. [...]
Does This Video Show A Nanobot Inseminating Egg With “Lazy” Sperm?
A black-and-white video shared on social media showed a microscopic corkscrew-shaped helix as it appeared to consume a sperm, transport it, and ultimately lead the little swimmer into the wall of an [...]
Study Could Help Reduce Environmental Risk of Quantum Dots
Polymers containing quantum dots (QDs) are considered crucial components of next-generation consumer items, but ambiguity remains regarding how these compounds may negatively affect public health and the environment. A pre-proof paper from the Journal of Hazardous [...]
New nanocomposite copper coating could be the next superbug fighter
A new copper coating that kills bacteria quicker and in greater amounts than current formulations could soon be available for hospitals and other high-traffic facilities. Although current formulations made of pure copper are antibacterial [...]
Vaccinating against cancer? A new class of nanoparticle vaccines developed
A vaccination as tumor therapy - with a vaccine individually created from a patient's tissue sample that " attaches" the body's own immune system to cancer cells: the basis for this long-term vision has [...]
New Insight Into Nanoassemblies for Specific Cancer Therapy
Although retinoic acid (RA) can induce cell death, its weak anticancer efficacy limits its clinical applications. To this end, stimulus-responsive self-assembling prodrug-based nanomedicines are promising candidates that enable controlled drug delivery. In an article [...]
Affordable Sources of Commercial Graphene for Energy Applications
Graphene is a multifunctional carbon nanomaterial widely synthesized for its applications in composites, energy storage, and sensors. Although previous reviews mentioned that achieving an increased yield compromises graphene quality, limiting its commercialization, recent research [...]
Centaurus: what we know about the new COVID variant and why there’s no cause for alarm
A new COVID variant has recently been detected in several countries including the UK, US, India, Australia and Germany. Called BA.2.75, it’s a subvariant of omicron. You might have also heard it called “Centaurus”, the [...]