You're gonna hear a lot about the Big Pharma advantage. It's obviously real....they have the money and experience to get things done quickly and thoroughly.
"The Phase 3 portion of the MOVe-OUT trial was conducted globally, including in more than 170 planned sites in countries including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States."
"The planned interim analysis evaluated data from 775 patients who were initially enrolled in the Phase 3 MOVe-OUT trial on or prior to Aug. 5, 2021."
All of those patients and all of those places....it's not a fair "fight". But one shouldn't blame Big Pharma or the FDA for that. It's the way things are. The little guy not only needs to build the better mousetrap but he has to prove it with thorough and reliable evidence. And he has to be quick about it, because if it's something worth doing the big guy is going to get it done quickly, as Merck has done here.
"At the interim analysis, molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by approximately 50%; 7.3% of patients who received molnupiravir were either hospitalized or died through Day 29 following randomization (28/385), compared with 14.1% of placebo-treated patients (53/377); p=0.0012. Through Day 29, no deaths were reported in patients who received molnupiravir, as compared to 8 deaths in patients who received placebo."
Comparisons won't be apples to apples because of the mild to moderate versus moderate to severe issue. Even so, "no deaths" is hard to beat. Given the paucity of alternatives I would think that an EUA is on the way. If so Big Pharma deserves thanks, not derisive comments.