Big Pharma has incentives, alright. Incentives to make massive profits at the expense of taxpayers and all Americans, Mitch’s BS notwithstanding:
U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. on Friday, Oct. 1, said it would seek authorization for the first oral antiviral pill to treat COVID-19, after a clinical trial showed it cut the risk of hospitalization or death in half when given to high-risk people during infection.
The drug, known as molnupiravir, was first shown to be efficacious against coronaviruses including the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, by investigators in the lab of Mark Denison, MD, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and their colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Initially developed by the Emory Institute for Drug Development (EIDD) in Atlanta, the drug — then called EIDD-1931 (oral form, EIDD-2801) — was subsequently licensed to Merck and Miami-based Ridgeback Therapeutics, which announced the results of the phase 3 clinical trial today.
In addition, the VUMC researchers contributed to development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA in December 2020. They analyzed the ability of the vaccine to stimulate robust immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 in a phase 1 clinical trial.
Much of the coronavirus research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Taxpayers are footing much of the research and development of drugs. Big Pharma reaps the profits. That is an outrage. The Grim Reaper knows he’s lying but that’s just how he rolls.