Merck's Covid pill fails to prevent infection among household members

Merck & Co Inc said on Tuesday (Feb 21) its Covid-19 pill was not effective at cutting the risk of coronavirus infections in people living with someone infected with the virus.

The results were similar to data from rival Pfizer Inc, whose Covid pill Paxlovid also failed to prevent infections among household contacts.

The two antiviral drugs are approved as treatments for individuals at risk of severe disease, but enthusiasm for the Merck pill has waned since it was shown to be only 30 per cent effective versus 90 per cent for Pfizer's Paxlovid.

Merck's late-stage trial enrolled over 1,500 participants, who were household contacts exposed to an individual with at least one symptom and had recently tested positive for Covid-19.

Its Lagevrio pill, also known as molnupiravir, was given every 12 hours for five days and was compared with a placebo group.

Participants treated with the pill were 23.6 per cent less likely to develop Covid than those given a placebo through day 14, failing to meet the main goal of the trial, Merck said.

Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Lagevrio pills were given emergency use authorisation in Dec 2021 for patients with mild to moderate Covid that tested positive for the virus, and who were at risk of progressing to severe Covid.

Earlier in Feb, the US Food and Drug Administration removed the need for a positive test for Merck and Pfizer's treatments in a bid to increase access to the drugs.

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