US Government to Purchase Covid-19 Pill of Merck Worth $1-Billion

On Tuesday, 9^th November 2021, the companies announced that, the government of the United States is going to be purchasing another 1 billion dollar worth of the novel corona virus pill produced by Merck & Co Inc., along with itspartner ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

In the month of June 2021, the government of the United States has agreed to purchase 1.7 million course of the molnupiravir medicine for 1.2 billion dollars and is now also exercising the options for buying the 1.4 million more covid-19 pills.

Merck said, this purchase has brought the total courses secured by the United States to 3.1 million and worth 2.2 billion dollars, and the government of the country has the right for purchasing 2 million more courses as a part of the contract or deal.

This new covid-19 pill has been closely watched since the month of October 2021, and it showed that, when the drug is given early phase of the illness, it can possibly decrease the chances of death or being hospitalized by 50 percent for those people, who are at more risk of developing serious corona virus infection.

Frank Clyburn, president of human health business at Merck said, if the molnupiravir drug is approved, then it is going to be among the medicines and vaccines that are available for fighting the novel corona virus as a part of their collective efforts for bring end to the novel corona virus pandemic in the coming time period.