BLOW FOR MERCK AS FRANCE CANCELS ORDER FOR COVID ANTIVIRAL PILLS

Thu 23 December 2021:

France’s purchase for Merck & Co’s Covid antiviral medicine was canceled on Wednesday, according to the French health minister. After the trail data revealed disappointing results, this step was taken.

The order has been publicly canceled for the first time in France. Pfizer’s medication is now expected to arrive in the country by the end of January.

Merck had revealed data in November indicating that their medicine was significantly less effective than previously anticipated, with a 30 percent reduction in hospitalizations and fatalities in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals.

There was no immediate reaction from Merck.

While vaccines remain the government’s main weapon against COVID-19, Merck and Pfizer’s experimental medicines could be a game-changer in lowering the risk of death or hospitalization for people most at risk of severe illness.

France had placed an early order for 50,000 doses of Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ nucleoside analogue medicine molnupiravir.

The cancellation would not incur a cost, Veran said.

In Italy, the office of the special commissioner for the COVID emergency claimed on Nov 18 that the health ministry had given it permission to purchase 50,000 courses of Merck’s medication and another 50,000 courses of Pfizer’s pill. “The contract has not yet been finalised, but is in progress,” a spokesperson for the commissioner told Reuters on Tuesday.

Nicola Magrini, the head of the Italian drug regulator Aifa, told a Senate committee on Dec. 9 that the two medicines could be accessible in Italy by the end of January.

However, regardless of the availability of the drugs, there will be assessments of their use, two top government scientific advisers told Reuters.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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