Canada may have spent $450 million on a new COVID-19 drug that may not work, the National Post reported..The Canadian government announced 10 months ago it would buy at least $450 million of Merck’s new COVID-19 drug molnupiravir..Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne praised the new partnership with Merck as a way to be better prepared for future health emergencies. .“This partnership will create good jobs for Canadians, secure domestic supply chains for medications and make sure we’re better prepared for future health emergencies,” said Champagne.. Merck Office .Health Canada has not approved molnupiravir and the federal government’s contract requires it to approve the drug..Most of the new drug would be manufactured in Ontario, creating jobs and helping Premier Doug Ford’s government deliver on its more jobs campaign promise..“[The manufacturing plant is] an important vote of confidence in our government’s plan to build Ontario,” said Ford..Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics expect to earn up to $5.5 billion around the world in 2022..However, molnupiravir in testing failed to reduce COVID-19 deaths or hospitalizations in a new study..Last week, the Panoramic trial led by Oxford University published the non-peer-reviewed study composed of two groups of about 12,500 patients, one group received standard care plus molnupiravir and the other group just the standard care..For both groups, the rate of deaths and hospitalizations was essentially the same..Patients with compromised immune systems did better in the standard care group not receiving molnupiravir..In the study, 94% of participants were triple-vaccinated and 99% had at least one dose..Molnupiravir’s main selling point is to lower the rate of hospitalizations and death, but is no better than the standard COVID-19 care..It reduced the time a person experienced symptoms and the viral load fell sooner than in people under standard COVID-19 care..The Panoramic study results do not show any real increased benefit over existing treatments, but Merck’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Eliav Barr disagrees..“The benefits here are pretty substantive,” Barr told the National Post. .“I think they’re pretty substantive from an economic point of view and they’re substantive for the patients who are older.”.Dr Andrew Hill, a University of Liverpool pharmacology researcher, is a critic of the drug, as it does not reduce hospitalizations or deaths.. COVID 19 April 12 2022Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash .“That cannot be supported any more,” Hill told the National Post. .“If you combine all the results from Panoramic and Merck’s MOVE-OUT trial, there is no significant effect. It just doesn’t work.”.Hill said corticosteroid budesonide has similar benefits to molnupiravir, but with only 2% of the cost..A Health Canada statement said “it is not possible to predict when a regulatory decision will be made” about molnupiravir..Paxlovid, Pfizer’s rival COVID-19 drug, received emergency approval from Health Canada in January..Both paxlovid and molnupiravir emerged as potential breakthrough COVID-19 treatments, which could be taken orally at home for high-risk outpatients..Hill and others published a paper questioning the efficacy of molnupiravir, as there were 12 trials in India with no data being released, leading to the suspicion the results were negative.
