The tablet, called molnupiravir, is taken as soon as possible after symptoms of COVID-19 develop and then for the next five days.
PARIS: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday recommended the mollupiravir pill for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms but high risk of hospitalization, such as older people or those without vaccination.
The pill, developed by US pharmaceutical Merck, is taken as soon as possible after COVID-19 symptoms develop and then for the next five days.
A group of WHO experts said in the British Medical Journal that people with weakened immune systems or chronic illness were also advised to take the pill if they had non-severe COVID-19.
However, "the drug should not be administered to young and healthy patients, including children, and pregnant and lactating women because of potential harm," he said.
The UN agency's new recommendation was based on the results of six randomized controlled trials involving 4,796 patients, the "largest dataset ever on this drug".
Trials suggested that mollupiravir reduced the risk of hospital visits, with 43 fewer admissions per 1,000 high-risk patients, as well as accelerating the speed at which symptoms cleared by an average of 3.4 days.
There was little indication that it had an effect on mortality, with only six fewer deaths per 1,000 patients.
The WHO acknowledged that "cost and availability issues associated with molnupiravir may challenge access to low- and middle-income countries and exacerbate health disparities".
While vaccines remain the most important tool in the fight against the pandemic, experts have welcomed the addition of new oral therapies, which block the virus's ability to replicate and the variants should be encountered.
The only other main anti-Covid pill available is Pfizer's PaxLovid.
However, more potential concerns have been raised about the Merck pill, which the US Food and Drug Administration has not authorized for use under the age of 18 because it can affect bone and cartilage development.
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