Merck is in discussions with various global health authorities about making its Covid antiviral pill molnupiravir available as an Ebola treatment to address the widening outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC, a senior executive told Reuters.
The outbreak, which has so far infected a suspected 1,100 people and resulted in 42 confirmed deaths, involves a rare strain of the virus called Bundibugyo for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
Molnupiravir is a non-specific RNA virus drug. Were thinking about how we could use that, Eliav Barr, chief medical officer at Merck Research Laboratories, said in an interview at the American Society for Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago on Sunday.
