Is the COVID-19 drug better than vaccine??? 😲😲😲

On October 1st, Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics reported the results from their COVID-19 drug Molnupiravir from phase 3 study in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. 

In their study, the risk of hospitalization or death are reduced by about 50%. Only 7.3% patients who got Molnupiravir were either hospitalized or died during the research. And the placebo group is 14.1%. The Molnupiravir group is no one dead and the placebo group is reported 8 people dead. 

But after a few days of that announcement, a source with the drug controller general of India reported that Molnupiravir is no significant efficacy toward the moderate COVID-19 and that effective effect is only against the mild COVID-19.

Although Merck said that no significant safety issues have been observed in the study, some scientists have expressed doubts about the safety of Molnupiravir. The structure of Molnupiravir is similar to the nucleotide of RNA. That makes the virus produce ineffective RNA to stop virus replication. Those scientists believe that this function will have adverse effects on the human too.

So, is the COVID-19 drug better than vaccine?

It is hard to say which one is better. The vaccine is always being the first way for diseases. It can protect people to avoid getting sick. The treated drugs will be used when the people get sick. Therefore, we should not compare with drug and vaccine. You can think that they are two different things.

Although Molnupiravir is highly cheaper than other COVID-19 treatment methods, it is still much more expensive than the widely vaccinated COVID-19 vaccine.

As the first oral small molecule antiviral drug supported by clinical data, Molnupiravir has obvious advantages over the current neutralizing antibody treatment of COVID-19: 

1. It does not require low-temperature storage and transportation.

2. It can be taken orally.

3. It provides a life defense for people who cannot or refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The convenience and price of Molnupiravir make it more approachable for the early-stage patients or high-risk groups.

The FDA will discuss for an emergency es authorization for Molnupiravir to treat COVID-19 on 30th November 2021. Let's look forward about it.