Philippine Daily Inquirer Digital Edition

FAIR ACCESS: WHO-LED PROGRAM TO BUY ANTIVIRAL PILLS FOR $10

BRUSSELS—A World Health Organization (WHO)-led program to ensure poorer countries get fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments aims to secure antiviral drugs for patients with mild symptoms for as little as $10 per course, a draft document seen by Reuters says.

Merck & Co’s experimental pill molnupiravir is likely to be one of the drugs, and other drugs to treat mild patients are being developed.

The document, which outlines the goals of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), says that the program wants to deliver about 1 billion COVID-19 tests to poorer nations, and procure drugs to treat up to 120 million patients globally.

The plans highlight how the WHO wants to shore up supplies of drugs and tests at a relatively low price after losing the vaccine race to wealthy nations that scooped up a huge share of the world’s supplies. There is precedent for lower prices of critical medicines for low-income countries during the pandemic.

AstraZeneca has pledged to sell its vaccines at cost ($4 per dose) during the pandemic and Pfizer is charging the US government at cost—around $7 a dose— for 1 billion doses for donations to the ACT-A’s COVAX program.

Other pills to treat mild patients are being developed. Molnupiravir is the only one which has so far showed positive results in late-stage trials.

WORLD

en-ph

2021-10-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://philippinedailyinquirerplus.pressreader.com/article/281917366276835

Philippine Daily Inquirer