The American pharmaceutical giant Merck He vowed to avoid the pitfalls of vaccine distribution and assured that his new Covid-19 pill will be available in rich and poor countries around the same time.
Paul Schaper, the company’s director of global strategy, told AFP that Merck began developing its access policy in July 2020, long before the first efficiency results.
Last week, the UK became the first country to allow this antiviral treatment, which decreases the virus’s ability to replicate if ingested within the first few days after symptoms of the disease appear.
Its administration requires just a glass of water.
We started developing our supply chain from the beginning, “said Paul Schaper.
Merck plans to manufacture the necessary doses for 10 million treatments before the end of the year.
The price at which they will be sold will depend on the payment capacity of the countries, according to a framework defined by the world Bank.
Merck, known as MSD outside the United States, has an agreement with eight generic producing partners in India and signed a voluntary license agreement with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to facilitate the access to treatment in 105 low- and middle-income countries.
In the first and second quarters of 2022 we will have a significant number of Merck products available in low- and middle-income countries, “said Schaper.
“There is a very good chance that we will see more equitable access to this drug than what we have seen in the response against Covid-19 so far,” he added.
“There will be a need for treatments” against Covid-19, “probably even more so in areas where a small proportion of the population is vaccinated,” Schaper said.
Pfizer is also developing a coronavirus pill and announced very positive early results last week.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx