On Monday, the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) has approved Merck’s anti-Covid-19 drug pills – Molnupiravir for emergency use. The authority has also allowed five other national companies to produce the oral antiviral as a first stage.
After the approval, the drug authority shared an official statement and notified that the authority has been overseeing many other companies that could manufacture the drug provided by the US pharmaceutical company.
Another statement was shared by the health ministry of Egypt, through which the head of EDA Tamer Essam pointed out that several local authorities have been succeeded in manufacturing “around 25,000 Molnuprivir packages, having raw material to produce about 150,000 additional packages”.
After this decision, Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa and fourth globally, after the UK, India and the US, to provide the antiviral pills, Molnupiravir, against SARS-CoV-2, mentioned Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.
EDA chief Essam said the oral pill, Molnupiravir, has obtained emergency use authorization from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as the first Covid-19 medicine to be taken orally.
He further said that the pills would be used to treat adult patients dealing with mild to moderate coronavirus infection.
According to the manufacturing company, Merck, the first oral pill might cut the hospitalization and Covid-19 related deaths by 30 percent
According to the drug authority, the pills must be taken under complete medical supervision and only available at the hospitals.
On the same day, Health Ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, while interacting with the media, stated that Egypt might receive an Evusheld coronavirus antibody by AstraZeneca to treat around 50,000 patients.
Whereas in early January, the spokesman stated that the nation might receive Pfizer’s Paxlovid pills, to treat 20,000 patients, suffering from coronavirus.
The health ministry has urged the citizens of the county to take the Covid-19 vaccine jab, as it is one of the effective methods to safeguard ourselves from infection and to reduce the death count and severe conditions.
According to the official data on January 15, amid the current Covid-19 wave in Egypt, the unvaccinated population is 260 times more likely to be hospitalized as compared to the population who have taken the booster dose as well as 25 times more likely to be admitted at the hospital as compared to the population who have received both vaccine jabs.