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The US government will buy another $1 billion worth of the Covid-19 pill made by Merck & Co Inc, the company said on Tuesday.
The government in June agreed to buy 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir for $1.2 billion and is now exercising options to buy 1.4 million more.
With these exercised options, the U.S. government has now committed to purchasing a total of approximately 3.1 million courses of molnupiravir, for approximately $2.2 billion, between authorization and early 2022.
The U.S. government also has the ability to purchase more than 2 million additional courses through further options that remain in the contract. Merck is developing molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Merck and Ridgeback previously announced the submission of an emergency use authorization application to the U.S. FDA for molnupiravir for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults at risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.
The application will be discussed at the FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee meeting on Nov. 30, 2021.
“We’re honored that the U.S. government has chosen to purchase more than 3 million courses of molnupiravir, our promising oral antiviral, so that molnupiravir, if authorized, will be among the vaccines and medicines available to fight COVID-19 as part of our collective efforts to bring this pandemic to an end,” said Frank Clyburn, president of Human Health, Merck.
“In light of the continued impact of the pandemic on hundreds of thousands of people every day, all of us at Merck are moving with urgency and rigor to bring molnupiravir, with its compelling data showing a significant reduction in death and hospitalizations, to patients as quickly as we can.”
