US govt procuring $1.2 billion of Merck's COVID-19 candidate

The US government will procure around 1.7 million courses of an investigational antiviral treatment, molnupiravir (MK-4482), for COVID-19 from Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK), pending emergency use authorization (EUA) or approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Molnupiravir (MK-4482) is designed to induce viral genome copying errors to prevent the virus from replicating in the human body, and evidence to date from clinical trials in patients with COVID-19 suggests that molnupiravir may reduce replication of the SAR-CoV-2 virus. The candidate is under development by Merck and privately-held biotech Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

Currently in Phase III testing