MERCK SELLS FEDERALLY FINANCED COVID PILL TO U.S. FOR 40 TIMES WHAT IT COSTS TO MAKE
https://theintercept.com/2021/10/05/covid-pill-drug-pricing-merck-ridgeback/
October 5 2021, 4:22 p.m.
A FIVE-DAY COURSE of molnupiravir, the new medicine being hailed as a “huge advance” in the treatment of Covid-19, costs $17.74 to produce, according to a report issued last week by drug pricing experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price.
Last Friday’s announcement that the new medicine cut the risk of hospitalization among clinical trial participants with moderate or mild illness in half could have huge implications for the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Because it’s a pill — as opposed to monoclonal antibodies, a comparable antiviral treatment that is administered intravenously — molnupiravir is expected to be more widely used and, hopefully, will cut the death rate. In the first 29 days of the trial, no deaths were reported among the 385 patients who received the drug, while eight of the people who received a placebo died, according to the statement put out by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the two companies that are jointly launching it.
In addition to having huge implications for health, the pill could bring staggering profits to both Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. A small Miami-based company, Ridgeback licensed the medicine from Emory University in 2020 and two months later sold the worldwide rights to the drug to Merck for an undisclosed sum. Although Ridgeback remains involved in the development of the drug, some have described the deal as “flipping.”
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Merck Sells Its Federally Financed COVID Pill to US for 40 Times What It Costs to Produce
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/update-merck-sells-federally-financed-covid-pill-us-40-times-costs-produce/
October 6, 2021 at 2:41pm
What a surprise!
The mainstream fake news media hailed the news last week that Merck Corporation had discovered a drug treatment for the COVID virus.
This comes over a year after the discovery that hydroxychloroquine was successful in treating the coronavirus in its early stages and months after it was discovered the Ivermectin had amazing success in treating the coronavirus, especially in India.
Merck is not just giving their new drug away. The company is charging the US government 40 times what it costs to produce their new wonder drug.
It’s another win for Big Pharma