New Covid Drugs Are Here—and They Could Change the Pandemic

di Francysar

Wired US fa il punto sui due farmaci antivirali di Pfizer e Merck:

Molnupiravir and Paxlovid are “small-molecule” drugs, easier to make, more stable in storage and distribution, and—this is the big one—they’re just pills. You pop ’em. On a planet ravaged by a pandemic virus, with effective vaccines unavailable in most places, easy-to-use, relatively cheap drugs could help beat the disease. “They’re game-changing in the sense that they’re both pills and therefore relatively easy to take,” says Charles Gore, executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool, a UN-supported organization that sets up international licensing agreements for drugs. “You don’t have to lie down to get an infusion, or walk 150 miles to get to a hospital.”

That’s convenient. And both Merck and Pfizer have also announced extensive licensing agreements with generic drugmakers and tiered pricing for lower-income countries, which is good for places that haven’t been able to afford the vaccines that North America and Europe have been hoarding. “I think the combination of these drugs and vaccines will really make a difference,” says Jayasree Iyer, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation,