Egypt become first country in Mideast and Africa to approve Covid-19 pills for emergency use

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.

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Tariq Saeed

Read More

Abu Dhabi: ‘Daman’ to provide full healthcare coverage to human trafficking, drug abuse victims

The National Health Insurance Company 'Daman' has declared free full healthcare coverage to victims who are being taken care of by Ewaa. The development comes as Daman signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Abu Dhabi Centre for Sheltering and Humanitarian Care - Ewaa, which is an affiliate of the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi.

UAE is an exceptional growth force under the leadership of Mohammed bin Zayed

The UAE is always stronger under the leadership of Mohammed bin Zayed and the vision and directives of Mohammed bin Rashid, not only because it was the fastest in overcoming the effects of the pandemic, the most difficult in human history, and the most balanced in dealing with the pandemic between human health and economic interests, and it is not the strongest as well because of its great leaps in its competitiveness.

Dubai exported 8 million tonnes of food last year

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The previous year, Dubai exported 8 million tonnes of food, the capital city's Municipality authorities stated on Thursday. As per...

Recent

St Kitts and Nevis: PM Terrance Drew shares 7 pillars of becoming Sustainable Island State

Dr Terrance Drew – The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, delivered his opening speech during the opening ceremony of the Diplomatic Week.

Jordan: PM Bashar Al Khasaouna approves ground for draft law of oil rocks

 The Prime Minister of Jordan, Dr Bashar Al-Khasaouna, chaired a session held on Sunday with the Cabinet and approved the justifiable grounds for a draft law on repealing the ratification of the Surface distillation of oil rocks.

The researchers have discovered an ancient coronavirus outbreak!

A genetic footprint has been discovered by the researchers of an ancient coronavirus outbreak by studying the genomes of modern humans from 26 worldwide...
admin