Merck's Oral Antiviral Molnupiravir Shows Reduced Efficacy of 30% in Final COVID-19 Trial Data

On November 26, MSD and Ridgeback announced updated clinical data for the COVID-19 oral drug Molnupiravir in the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19. Based on the data from all enrolled patients,Reduce hospitalization or mortality by 30%. There were 9 deaths in the placebo group and 1 death in the treatment group.

It is worth noting that,Previously (October 11), MSD announced the submission of an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application to the FDA for the oral antiviral drug Molnupiravir (MK-4482).This EUA is based on the positive interim analysis results of the Phase 3 clinical MOVe-OUT study. The trial evaluated Molnupiravir in non-hospitalized adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

In the interim analysis,Molnupiravir reduces the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 50%.; On day 29 after randomization, 7.3% of patients receiving Molnupiravir were hospitalized or died (28/385), compared to 14.1% (53/377) in the placebo group, p=0.0012. By day 29, no deaths were reported among patients receiving Molnupiravir, while there were 8 deaths among patients receiving placebo.In terms of safety, the incidence of any adverse events in the Molnupiravir group and the placebo group was comparable (35% and 40%, respectively), and the incidence of drug-related adverse events was also similar (12% and 11%, respectively).

In other words, the overall patient efficacy rate for Molnupiravir in this update is only 30%, far lower than the 50% reported in the interim analysis. Following this news, Merck's pre-market stock price fell by 4%, competitor Pfizer's pre-market stock price rose by 6%, mRNA vaccine company Moderna's stock price increased by 13%, and BioNTech's stock price went up by 10%.