There has been laboratory studies that show Merck & Co's experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is likely to help fight against known variants of the coronavirus, including the dominant, highly transmissible Delta, the company said on Wednesday.
The molnupiravir shows that it does not target the spike protein of the virus - the target of all current COVID-19 vaccines - which means the differences between the variants, the drug should be equally effective as the virus continues to mutate, said Jay Grobler, head of infectious disease and vaccines at Merck.
What molnupiravir does is target the viral polymerase, which is an enzyme that is needed for the virus to make replicates of itself. It's made to work by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus.
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SOURCE: Yahoo Finance
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