WASHINGTON (The Hill): Merck said on Monday that it has requested authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its antiviral COVID-19 pill.
Merck said in a statement that emergency use authorization was requested “for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults who are at risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.”
The pharmaceutical company said earlier this month that testing showed that molnupiravir, which was developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduced the risk of hospitalization by 50 percent.
“The extraordinary impact of this pandemic demands that we move with unprecedented urgency, and that is what our teams have done by submitting this application for molnupiravir to the FDA within 10 days of receiving the data,” Robert M. Davis, chief executive officer and president of Merck, said in a statement on Monday.
