KAMPALA: The United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to develop and approve a pill to treat COVID symptoms.
The tablet – molnupiravir – will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease and has been approved by the UK medicines regulator.
In clinical trials the pill, originally developed to treat flu, cut the risk of hospitalisation or death by about half.
Molnupiravir, developed by the US drug companies Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD) and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, is the first antiviral medication for Covid which can be taken as a pill rather than injected or given intravenously.
The UK has agreed to purchase 480,000 courses with the first deliveries expected in November.
Initially it will be given to both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients through a national study, with extra data on its effectiveness collected before any decision to order more.
The drug needs to be given within five days of symptoms developing to be most effective.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the treatment was a “gamechanger” for the most frail and immunosuppressed.
In a statement he said: “Today is a historic day for our country, as the UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral that can be taken at home for Covid.”
In Uganda, where total COVID cases amount to about 126,000 with about 3200 deaths, a similar therapeutic anti- symptomatic COV|ID therapy named COVIDEX was recently developed by a university don, Prof. Ogwang but it is still undergoing clinical trials.
But Ugandans who have regularly obtained it from the country’s pharmacies and drug shops, claim it is very effective.
The pandemic that has devastated the world for two years has registered over 248 million total cases and left some 5 million deaths.
For more on this pill, visit https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59163899 for details.