This message is transferred from The Paper reported at 23:00 on January 20, 2022

Merck's new crown oral treatment can be imitated.

On January 20 local time, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced through its official website that it had signed agreements with 27 pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to produce and supply Merck’s oral anti-coronavirus drug Molnupiravir to 105 low- and middle-income countries or regions around the world, to promote the affordability and accessibility of the drug globally.

MPP signed an agreement with 27 generic pharmaceutical companies on Molnupiravir, an oral drug for the new crown

Molnupiravir is an oral form of nucleoside drugs under investigation, which works by interfering with the replication of the virus, keeping the level of the virus in the body at a low level, thereby reducing the severity of the disease, jointly developed by Merck and the biotechnology company Ridgeback. At present, the drug has been authorized by the US FDA for emergency use and is suitable for the treatment of mild to moderate new coronary pneumonia in high-risk adult patients.

Among the 27 enterprises that have signed agreements with MMP, 5 companies will focus on the production of APIs, 13 companies will produce both APIs and finished drugs, and 9 companies will produce finished drugs. It is noteworthy that 5 Chinese pharmaceutical companies including Fosun Pharma, Borui Pharmaceutical, Shijiazhuang Lonzeal Pharmaceuticals, Shanghai Desano, and Langhua Pharmaceutical are among them, and the first four of them are licensed to produce raw materials and finished drugs at the same time. Langhua Pharmaceuticals is licensed to produce APIs.

The licensed company has successfully demonstrated its ability to meet the MPP's requirements for manufacturing capacity, regulatory compliance, and meeting international standards for quality-assured pharmaceuticals, the MPP said.

According to the official website, the Drug Patent Pool is a public health organization supported by the United Nations, dedicated to increasing access to life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries and promoting drug development. To date, MPP has signed agreements with multiple patent holders covering 13 HIV antiretroviral drugs, one HIV technology platform, three direct-acting antiviral drugs for hepatitis C, one tuberculosis treatment, two long-term Effective technologies, two experimental oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19 and a diagnostic test for COVID-19 antibodies.

In addition to signing an agreement with Merck on the new crown oral drug, MPP also signed a related agreement with Pfizer on the new crown oral drug PAXLOVID. According to a press release published on Pfizer's official website on January 18 local time, Pfizer has signed a voluntary license agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to help expand its accessibility in 95 low- and middle-income countries, which is about 53% of the world's population.