Two Indian drugmakers to discontinue MSD’s molnupiravir
pharmafile | October 8, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications |
AuroBindo Pharma Ltd and MSD Laboratories plan to end their respective trials of MSD’s experimental antiviral drug molnupiravir in moderate COVID-19 patients, according to Reuters.
The pharmaceutical firms are still planning to continue their separate trials in mild COVID-19 patients, as reported by the Indian drug regulator’s expert committee on Friday.
MSD signed a voluntary licensing pact with Aurobindo Pharma for molnupiravir earlier this year, and since August, Aurobindo has been conducting a medical trial of molnupiravir in 100 sufferers with reasonable COVID-19.
Molnupiravir was originally developed for the treatment of influenza. According to medRxiv, it is the first oral, direct-acting antiviral shown to be highly effective at reducing nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 infectious virus and viral RNA, and it has a favourable safety and tolerability profile.
The drug has been described as game-changing, and MSD has said that the viral sequencing done so far shows that molnupiravir is effective against all variants of COVID-19, including the highly transmissable Delta variant.
However, a close source told Reuters that Molnupiravir has thus far shown no significant efficacy against moderate COVID-19 cases. A joint trial for the antiviral drug is currently being conducted by five Indian generic drugmakers, only in mild COVID-19 patients in an outpatient setting.
The source added that the drug regulator has not yet approved any of the eight companies that have applied for a molnupiravir licence.
In July, earlier this 12 months, pharmaceutical firm Hetero introduced interim information from a late-stage trial in gentle COVID-19 sufferers, and submitted a software for emergency use approval for a similar.
Lina Adams
