Merck & Co’s experimental antiviral pill molnupiravir will be rolled out in the Philippines by November through hospitals and compassionate permits according to Filipino company MedEthix.
MedEthix co-founder Monaliza Salian said in a press briefing that their supplier will cover 300,000 COVID-19-positive patients.
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“A breakthrough drug is coming as MedEthix will launch the first molnupiravir in the country within November, and that’s already next month,” Salian said.
Hospitals with the compassionate permit will prescribe the pill to their patients. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue an emergency use approval for the vaccines.
“The CSP applicant doctors or the associations, the hospitals, will dispense molnupiravir to the patients with the description. So we will just confine ourselves with whatever is the requirements of the FDA,” she said.
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Molnupiravir will be taken twice a day for five days or as prescribed by the physician. The estimated cost of molnupiravir will be around P130 to 150 each capsule.
“I would estimate… it’s probably anywhere between, on the market itself, hopefully, it will be somewhere in the vicinity of a P130 per pill,” Pharmaceutical company JackPharma Inc. president Meny Hernandez said. (TDT)
