Ridgewood NJ, according to the CDC , Natural immunity from prior infection led to levels of protection against the Delta variant of COVID-19 than vaccination alone.
Ridgewood NJ, Pharmaceutical companies are pushing to develop more effective, easily administered therapeutics for COVID-19, some of which are being studied for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This morning, Merck announced that its investigational oral antiviral molnupiravir, which is being developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalization or death among non-hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms who were considered high risk due to other health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, or heart disease. Among patients who took a 5-day course of the drug, 7.3% (28/385) were hospitalized or died compared with 14.1% (53/377) of patients who took a placebo, according to the interim analysis of the Phase 3 MOVe-OUT trial. Merck said it will file an application for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with the US FDA as soon as possible, as well as filing applications for marketing with regulatory agencies globally. Over the summer, the US government announced plans to purchase 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir from Merck for about US$1.2 billion, pending US FDA authorization or approval. If authorized, the drug would become the first oral medication available to treat COVID-19.
Ridgewood NJ, over the weekend, the US FDA renewed its warning that the anti-parasitic animal drug ivermectin should not be used to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans. The FDA’s message appeared on Twitter with the statement “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” The tweet linked to the agency’s previous statement posted in March 2021. The reiterated warning came a day after the Mississippi State Department of Health issued an alert warning people against using the drug.