The World's First COVID-19 Pill Just Got Approved In The UK & Here's How It Works
Merck's new pill could be a game-changer for the pandemic.
There's now officially a pill that you can take to treat COVID-19 after you get it.
The UK approved a new drug from Merck called molnupiravir on Thursday, making it the world's first COVID treatment that you can take orally.
Health officials recommend taking the drug as soon as possible after getting a positive COVID test, and within the first five days that a patient begins showing symptoms. They say it's meant to be an extra layer of protection against the disease, and it doesn't replace getting a vaccine.
"This will be a game-changer for the most vulnerable and the immunosuppressed, who will soon be able to receive the ground-breaking treatment," UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement.
It'll be called Lagevrio and they'll only give it to high-risk patients to start, so it's unclear when or if you'll be able to drop by the pharmacy and grab a bottle for yourself. Officials also didn't say exactly how many pills a person will need to take.
The most effective COVID-19 treatment so far has been monoclonal antibodies but those are expensive, hard to administer and typically used for people who are already in the hospital.
With the new COVID pill, patients will be able to take their treatments at home.
Several drugmakers have been racing to come up with antiviral pills for COVID-19 over the last year, including Pfizer and Roche and Atea Pharmaceuticals. The pills are designed to mess up the way that COVID-19 spreads through the body after infection.
The coronavirus makes you sick by using your body to make copies of itself, and those copies then spread throughout your system.
The molnupiravir drug basically goes in there and messes with the process, so those new copies of the virus come out all weird and useless.
"The virus essentially mutates itself to death," virologist Richard Plemper told Nature last month.
This makes it so the disease spreads more slowly, you get less sick and your chances of surviving and avoiding a hospital visit get better.
The UK is the first country to approve a drug of this kind, although US officials are expected to vote on it later this month.