In a study conducted by Tina Saey, she looked at Merck’s Covid- 19 pill Molnupiravir and how it is affecting hospitalization rates of Covid-19. Molnupiravir, “an antiviral drug that can be taken at home” is the first medicine that can be taken orally that is approved to help fight off Covid-19. The drug is typically administered to patients who have mild to moderate Covid within five days of their symptoms appearing. Molnupiravir has been tested several times and is now waiting on the FDA for formal approval. This new pill could be a game-changer, but will it really be as great as it seems?
Ms. Saey states that “finding an early treatment hasn’t been easy”, so when Molnupiravir came around experts praised its development. Initially, the pill showed great signs of preventing hospitalizations and death from Covid-19. The results were so promising, a 48% decrease in hospitalizations, that the trial ended early so that the pill might become available to the public faster. However, when all the data was collected and analyzed the reduction in hospitalization rate dropped to 30%. The unexplained decrease happened when participants in the placebo group were no longer experiencing severe symptoms. Due to the decrease in reported effectiveness, the FDA’s antimicrobial drugs advisory committee came to a split 13-10 decision on whether the drug should be available for emergency use.
The main concern for authorizing Molnupiravir is that the pill could create even more dangerous versions of the Covid- 19 coronavirus. The drug works by making mutations in the RNA. This is when a change occurs that affects nucleic acids, the building blocks of RNA. A handful of these mutations could land in the spike protein. Spike proteins interact with the cell receptors located on the host cell; in terms of Covid-19 it helps the coronavirus break into cells. The spike protein could also burst into other proteins making the virus more transmittable. James Hildreth, an immunologist stated that, “the potential for this drug to drive some very challenging variants into the public is of major, major concern.” Although this is a possibility it seems unlikely because, after five days of usage, infectious viruses in participants taking Molnupiravir were no longer detectable.
Spike Protein
Overall, there is much promise but also notable concerns to the new drug Molnupiravir. I believe that this new medicine, even with its downsides, could save hundreds of thousands of lives. As Ms. Saey states, “a 30 percent reduction in hospitalizations and deaths is worth giving the drug temporary authorization.”
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