Thanks To An Erstwhile Commenter, We've Read That Merck’s Molnupiravir, The Oral COVID Pill, Is Now Widely-Available In The UK…

This is truly a nice bit of news -- and it is good to see how swiftly the British regulatory agencies were able to parse the clinical data, and speed it to availability for people in need, in England.

We will keep an eye out for a full approval by the US FDA, now. But even as other manufacturers also announce results on their oral COVID medications, Merck's fortunes will be. . . just fine.

Its rise, on the NYSE, after the initial Molnupiravir results were made public was (as I said) a little overheated. And now, with the stock once again trading at about even, to the time before that announcement -- we feel Merck is attractively valued again. And all this makes sense, as we knew there would be competitors, and there would (rightly) be licenses at near zero-net-revenue, in the less developed economies of the world -- perhaps 120 of them.

Still, here is the good news, from Thursday past:

. . .Regulators in Britain granted approval to the experimental drug molnupiravir from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck on Thursday, marking the first authorization from a public health body for an oral antiviral treatment for covid-19 in adults.

Experts have said that if widely authorized, the medicine could have huge potential to help fight the coronavirus pandemic: Pills are easier to take, manufacture and store, making them particularly useful in lower- to middle-income countries with weaker infrastructure and limited vaccine supplies.

“We will continue to move with both rigor and urgency to bring molnupiravir to patients around the world as quickly as possible,” Merck President Robert M. Davis said in a statement. . . .

And no, folks -- this is not Jim Bakker's colloidal silver. [Yikes -- who ARE these people?!] Onward. . . smiling, out into a perfectly bright and warm Fall morning. . . it is time to. . . bike!

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