Lacson urges FDA to allow commercial sale, use of anti-COVID pill

FILE PHOTO: Samples of the experimental COVID-19 treatment pill molnupiravir in a photo released by US manufacturer Merck & Co. Inc. REUTERS

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow the commercial sale and use of pills that are seen to treat COVID-19 which may significantly improve the country’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Lacson in a statement on Tuesday said the FDA should allow the entry of molnupiravir into the local market so that people would just buy the pill if they get sick from the new coronavirus disease.

“‘Yung mismong permiso ibigay na, ilabas na ng FDA para ‘pag nandiyan na sa merkado, bibili na lang tayo o bibili ‘yung national government, local government, ipapamahagi sa mga public hospital,” Lacson said.

(The permit itself should be distributed already, the FDA should release it so that by the time it is available in the market, we would just buy pills or the national government and local government would buy and distribute it to public hospitals.)

Molnupiravir, a potentially game-changing COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by U.S.-based Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, has provided a possible early-stage treatment of COVID-19, which would, in turn, prevent severe cases and hospitalization.

The United Kingdom was the first country to approve the use of the pill, which will be rolled out through a drug trial phase this month.

READ: UK to roll out COVID-19 antiviral drug trial this month–Health Security Agency 

READ: Britain approves Merck’s COVID-19 pill in world first

INQUIRER.net on Tuesday asked FDA Director-General Eric Domingo on the status of the permit for the sale of molnupiravir, and he said that it is still under a compassionate special permit.

However, Domingo assured that they are working to evaluate applications for molnupiravir’s emergency use authorization (EUA) and certificate of product registration (CPR).

“It is already allowed for sale under compassionate special permit. We are also evaluating applications for EUA and CPR for the Molnupiravir and the FDA is acting on them quickly,” Domingo said in a text message.

Lascon said he is seeking the commercial use of molnupiravir after seeing how hard it is for COVID-19 patients to access healthcare services when one of his staffers got infected.

“Ako, mismong staff ko, na-COVID… Nakapila, alam niyo ang tawag, sitting patient. Hindi na siya makahinga, nandoon siya sa corridor ng ospital, naghihintay ng kuwartong mababakante. Napakiusap namin na ipasok sa San Lazaro,” Lacson said.

(I saw it first hand when one of my staffers got COVID.  They lined up, you know what they called them?  Sitting patients.  They could not lie down, they had to stay on the corridor of the hospital, waiting for vacant beds.  We were able to ask San Lazaro to accommodate him.)

“Ngayon, naresetahan ng doktor, remdesivir. Ang sagot kaagad, wala kaming available niyan sa aming pharmacy. Bakit? Bakit walang stock? Bakit kailangan bumili ‘yung pobreng pasyente?” he asked.

(Now, the doctor prescribed remdesivir. But the quick answer was that we do not have that in our pharmacy.  Why?  Why don’t we have any stock, Why do poor patients need to buy their own medicines?)

Lacson said such incidents would not happen again if FDA allows the commercial and widespread use of the molnupiravir.

Currently, COVID-19 numbers in the country have improved, with fresh infections decreasing in the past few days, and hospitals being decongested after nearly being filled up again during the last surge from August to September.

As of November 9, the country’s active COVID-19 cases were down to 30,544 after the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 1,409 new infections and 2,941 recently-recovered patients.

However, fears remain that the good trend may be short-lived if people disregard health protocols.

Over the weekend, netizens on social media took notice of the busier roads and the higher number of children in public areas after the national government placed Metro Manila under COVID-19 Alert Level 2 and allowed minors to go out.

Authorities, especially from the DOH, have warned against being too relaxed as the pandemic’s threat along with other variants — like the Delta subvariant — still persists.

KGA