And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:36
"Merck announced Friday that an experimental COVID pill it has
developed reduced hospitalizations and deaths by 50% in people recently
infected with COVID.
The company will soon ask health officials in the US and abroad to authorize use of the drug.
The news came as a welcome surprise to the public, although COVID cases
are already waning in the US and in hard-hit economies in Asia, the drug
could create "a real therapeutic advance" that could dramatically
decrease the risk of death from COVID.
If approved (and odds are it will be) the drug would be the first
treatment for COVID. Some compared it to tamiflu, in that patients
should take it within 5 days of COVID infection (like those infected
with the flu are instructed to take tamiflu early).
Per the results, 7% of volunteers in the group that received the drug
were hospitalized, and none of them died, compared with a 14% rate of
hospitalization and death (include eight who died) in the placebo group.
According to Dr. Gottlieb, "this
is a phenomenal result. This is a profound game-changer that we have an
oral pill that had this kind of effect on patients who are already
symptomatic."
Dr. Gottlieb also pointed out that the team that developed the drug "also invented the first successful antibody against ebola so this is a very good drug-development team."
"And
remember we have two other drugs in development one by Pfizer (where
Dr. Gottlieb serves on the board) and the other by Roches," he said.
Patients
won't be taking the drug for very long, typically around five days,
which means "the safety profile is probably pretty good," Dr. Gottlieb
said.
....the Merck pill’s efficacy was lower than that of monoclonal
antibody treatments, which mimic antibodies that the immune system
generates naturally when fighting the virus. Those drugs have
been in high demand recently, but they are expensive, are typically
given intravenously, and have proved cumbersome and labor-intensive for
hospitals and clinics to administer. Studies have shown that they reduce
hospitalizations and deaths 70 to 85 percent in similar high-risk Covid
patients.
Q: So, is the prospect of a return to "normality" really on the table? I suppose we're about to find out."
ZeroHedge