WHO Recommends Covid Pill Molnupiravir for High-risk Patients as Controlled Trials Bring Hope

After receiving a nod from its expert panel, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday updated its therapeutic guidelines for Covid-19 to include antiviral drug ‘Molnupiravir’ for high-risk patients with non-severe Covid-19.

The panel has however warned against using the drug on young and healthy patients, including children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The WHO Guideline Development Group of international experts in The British Medical Journal (BMJ), set to be published in the early hours of Wednesday, said recommended molnupiravir drug conditionally.

The WHO’s recommendation is based on the results of six randomised controlled trials involving 4,796 patients, the “largest dataset on this drug so far”. The results of the trials showed molnupiravir reducing the risk of hospital admission, with 43 fewer admissions per 1,000 high-risk patients. Besides, it also helped in increasing the pace at which symptoms cleared up by an average of 3.4 days.

Patients who are at highest risk of hospitalisation typically include those who are unvaccinated, are of old age and have a weak immune system or suffer from certain chronic diseases.

The expert panel, however, warned against giving the drug to young and healthy patients, including children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women due to potential harms.

Molnupiravir is the world’s first pill to treat symptomatic Covid. The antiviral developed by pharma major Merck is being hailed as a gamechanger for high-risk individuals and people with weakened immunity and reportedly cuts the risk of hospitalisation and death by half.

The first oral anti-Covid drug was approved in the last week of December by the country’s apex health regulator Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

Thirteen Indian pharmaceutical companies, including Torrent, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Natco, Mylan, Hetero, and Optimus were given the clearances to manufacture molnupiravir, which is being developed by US-based biotechnology company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics in collaboration with American pharma giant Merck.

The data shows that in January, more than 5.6 lakh units of the drug have been sold across India. Out of these, some brands contain strips of 10 capsules whereas others contain strips of 40 capsules. As per the estimates, 1.2 crore capsules have been sold in the past month.

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