No 10 to buy new antiviral treatments for Covid in time for winter
by Peter Walker and Ian Sample from Science | The Guardian on (#5QYB0)
Trials show one of drugs cuts risk of hospitalisation or death for patients by half
No 10 has made deals to buy hundreds of thousands of doses of two new antiviral treatments for coronavirus, ministers have announced, at least one of which it is hoped will be approved for use in the UK ahead of the winter.
One deal covers 480,000 courses of molnupiravir, which can be taken as a pill twice a day. In trials, the drug, made by Merck, known as MSD outside the US, has been shown to cut the risk of hospitalisation or death for patients not in hospital by half.
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