Merck & Co Inks $1Bn Major Supply Deal with Japan For Covid-19 Pill

Merck antiviral molnupiravir for covid-19 has showed positive results. Thus it has continued to pay off through supply deals. J&J has inked a deal of $1 Bn sale order deal. The company will supply 1.6 million courses worth $1.2 billion.

Japan inked the deal with Merck & Co following receiving approval for the medicine from Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency of Japan. Earlier in October, the medicine which was taken 800 mg twice daily showed reduced risk of hospitalization or fatality from covid-19. The percentage of death and hospitalization was reduced by 50% in adult patients.

Owing to the positive results the drug received approval from UK authorities earlier this week. UK has also signed a deal with to get 480,000 courses of the drug. Merck has inked similar deals in progress worldwide.is building supply chain capacity post its phase three positive results. Merck is planning to manufacture 10 million courses by end of 2021 and 20 million until 2022. Most importantly to boost the supply of the medicine globally, has inked a licensing deal with Medicines Patent Pool.

Meanwhile the competitive rival of Merck, Pfizer has revealed that its Paxlovid medicine has showed positive results. It has revealed that Paxlovid can reduce hospitalization and death upto 89%. As a result, due to the positive data, the company has sought emergency authorization from FDA for Paxlovid to bring it in the US and other markets across the world.