New Covid-19 pill may cut chance of death or hospitalisation by up to half
The pharmaceutical giant Merck has said clinical trials of its new oral antiviral medication for the treatment of Covid-19 have shown that it can reduce the chance of hospitalisation or death by about 50 percent for patients at risk of severe disease.
Tests on the pill, called molnupiravir, showed only 7 percent of patients who received the medication were hospitalised compared with 14pc of people treated with a placebo drug.
If authorised, the drug would be the first oral antiviral medication for Covid-19