Antiviral drug Molnupiravir has been approved for use in the treatment of COVID-19 cases in Guyana, targeting mainly patients with moderate symptoms to prevent the development of severe disease.
Produced by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the oral medication has proven to significantly reduce both hospitalisations and deaths. On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) updated its guidelines on COVID-19 therapeutics to include the conditional recommendation on Molnupiravir.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony announced in Thursday’s COVID-19 update a local agency was given the greenlight to import the drug and Government would activate efforts to introduce it into the public health system.
He disclosed, “We have had an application in Guyana for the use of Molnupiravir and the Food and Drug Administration here would have granted to that local importing agency, the right to import and use Molnupiravir under this regimen of emergency use authorisation…It’s for patients who might have mild to moderate symptoms, but because of other factors like comorbidities and so forth, one might expect that they might proceed to the more severe form of COVID. In this case, it warrants using the medication.”
Women are required to undergo a pregnancy test before taking the medication. Additionally, mothers are asked to stop breastfeeding for the duration that they are using the medication and about five days after.
“There’s some caution when using this type of medication, especially for pregnant women or women of child-bearing age. Before a woman uses the medication, the persons prescribing would have to check to see whether or not this person is pregnant. A pregnancy test would be required,” the Minister informed.
If a persons is prescribed the medication, they must also indicate any existing allergy. The pills are to be taken for five days, 800 milligrams at 12-hour intervals.
“For a patient, when they come to the doctor and this is being prescribed, they should tell the doctor about their allergy profile. It is important to know that,” Dr Anthony said. “But the drug is available in Guyana and from the Ministry level, we will also make attempts to get some of the medicines into our system.”
This is the first oral antiviral drug to be included in the treatment guidelines for COVID-19. The WHO says that Molnupiravir should be provided only to non-severe COVID-19 patients with the highest risk of hospitalisation. These are typically people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccination, older people, people with immunodeficiencies and people living with chronic diseases. (G12)
