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SL’s Covid Expert Committee greenlights use of first oral anti-Covid drug

15 Nov 2021

Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 Expert Committee has approved the use of Molnupiravir, an oral antiviral pill used against Covid-19. This was confirmed by State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana. Earlier last week, BBC reported that the same antiviral drug was approved by UK’s medicines regulator. The tablet will be given twice a day to vulnerable patients recently diagnosed with the disease in the UK. In clinical trials, the medication 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.


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