Mortality rate halved at the initial stage of infection Merck Pharma agrees to share the formula of oral medicine
(Washington, USA, 28th) Merck & Co. agreed to share the formula of molnupiravir (molnupiravir), an oral drug for coronary disease with other pharmaceutical companies, in order to reduce the price of the drug.
The United Nations-supported organization Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance stated that Merck has signed an agreement to share oral drug formulations, and authorized drug patent pools to cooperate with qualified pharmaceutical companies to produce related drugs. As long as the World Health Organization continues to list the COVID-19 epidemic as a global public health emergency, Merck will not charge any drug patent fees, and the agreement will allow oral drugs to be sold at lower prices in 105 countries.
The Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance pointed out that this agreement includes technology transfer, and the Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance will issue a sublicense to the pharmaceutical companies approved to produce this antiviral drug.
Gore, the chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance, said that the preliminary results show that the drug is “convincing.” He hopes that the first voluntary licensing agreement for the treatment of coronary disease can take the lead.
Holman, CEO of Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, a Miami biopharmaceutical company involved in the development of this oral drug, said that after the agreement is approved by the competent authority, it will be possible to quickly develop and distribute the quality-guaranteed version of the generic drug “Monapiravir” in the future. “, so that countries can deal with public health challenges, more than any organization can do it alone, having a partner can do more.
Monapiravir was jointly developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It is currently the first drug that has been shown to treat the coronavirus. The test results released by Merck this month show that if the drug is administered at the beginning of the infection, the drug can be infected. Reduce hospitalization and mortality by half at the initial stage. The United States and European Union drug authorities are reviewing Merck’s emergency use authorization.
Since the epidemic, there have been discussions and calls for pharmaceutical companies to open their patents for related drugs and vaccines, but vaccine manufacturers have not yet agreed.
Earlier this year, Merck signed a bilateral licensing agreement with eight Indian scientific name pharmaceutical companies, and the agreement signed with the Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance will expand the number of pharmaceutical companies that can produce monapilavir scientific name drugs.
The Pharmaceutical Patent Alliance pointed out that although it is not clear how many drugs each pharmaceutical factory can produce when its production capacity is fully opened, it is expected that some pharmaceutical factories will start shipping this year. Merck has stated that it can produce 10 million sets of drugs before the end of the year and is expanding its production capacity to facilitate the production of more drugs next year.
Xia Bo, Executive Director of Merck’s Global Pharmaceutical Public Policy Department, said: “From the very beginning, we wanted to expand the partnership of generic pharmaceutical companies.” He said that this supply and licensing agreement will “provide drugs for both high-income and low-middle-income countries around the world. “.
Wealthy countries such as Australia and South Korea have been waiting for such drugs and have begun to negotiate supply contracts with Merck. For example, the US government has agreed that if Mona Piravir is authorized by the regulatory authorities for emergency use, it will pay US$1.2 billion and purchase 1.7 billion. Group treatment.
According to the Pharmaceutical Patent Consortium, 24 pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in the manufacture of monapilavir.