Game changing made-in-India anti covid pills likely to be cleared for use in a few days

New Delhi: In what has been touted as the potential game changer in the fights against Covid-19, the Merck & Co's experimental antiviral drug Molnupiravir to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 is likely to get its emergency use authorisation "within days", Dr Ram Vishwakarma, Chairman of the Covid Strategy Group, CSIR told to NDTV.

He further added that the other experimental antiviral pill for COVID-19, i.e. Pfizer's Paxlovid, may take some more time to get approval.

As per Vishwakarma, the two drugs will make a difference and are the ones which are going to be more important than vaccination and as we move from pandemic to endemic.

Speaking further about the anti-COVID pills, he said that the "drugs can be called the final nail in the coffin of the virus by science". He added, "I think Molnupiravir will be already available to us. Five companies are sitting with the drug manufacturer... I think any day we will have the approval of Molnupiravir".

Data for Molnupiravir has been "sitting with the regulator" here before the UK regulator's approval, he said. "So already SECs are looking at it. And I think they will they will get faster approval now. And therefore, it would it be safe to say that within the next one month, there would be a decision on approval for the Merck drug".

Pfizer has said according to clinical trial, its Paxlovid cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 per cent in vulnerable adults.

Merck has already contracted five companies "and the way Merck has given this license to several companies, Pfizer will also do because Pfizer will have to utilise the Indian capacity to manufacture the drugs that are required for the global use".

Discussing the cost of the antiviral drug, Dr. Vishwakarma said that it will be far lower than the 700$ that is being considered in the United States for the Merck vaccine "because in America it is costly for various other reasons and not for the manufacturing cost".

"I think here when the government of India comes into play, they will buy in bulk from these companies and of course, they will have a dual pricing system and a staggered pricing system. It might initially cost Rs. 2000 to 3000 or 4000 per cycle of treatment, then it will come down to Rs. 500 to 600 or 1,000."