PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey-based Merck & Co. says an experimental pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people who are newly infected with COVID-19. They are planning to ask for emergency use authorization.
KYW Newsradio Medical Editor Dr. Brian McDonough says the study on this pill showed very strong results early on.
"They're game-changing numbers, big enough that they said, 'Let's stop this study, and let's start to use it if we can get FDA approval' — because there was this chance of, like, we can help more people and help them quicker."
McDonough says he is optimistic about the drug's potential because it stops the virus from replicating in the body.
"If you can stop the way it spreads, you know, you're going after it," he said.
"It is a way to have an anti-viral, like a weapon you can use, in your body to help you out."
He says the result is similar to that of monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 patients, but without needing intravenous infusions. It's a much simpler situation for the patient.
"This is something that would be four pills, twice a day, for five days," he said. "A lot like the way we now treat the flu: We vaccinate people, and then people who get sick, we try to give them medications early on to help."
Part of the key is that a patient must take the pill within the first five days after exposure, at the beginning of infection when symptoms occur.
McDonough says this may be even be more important in other parts of the world, where vaccination rates are very low, than it is in the United States.
"You go to places like Africa, you have a 7% to 10% vaccine rate," he said. "People, whether they want [the vaccine] or not, they can't get it. You know, this is a worldwide problem."
The next steps for Merck are to seek emergency use authorization from the FDA and health agencies around the world. With that process will come peer review by independent evaluators and a better understanding of side effects. For example no, pregnant women were involved in the Merck study.