Gates Foundation will provide $120 million to ensure generic production of Merck’s Covid-19 pill
As concern mounts over access to Covid-19 remedies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is committing up to $120 million to accelerate production of generic versions of an experimental Merck (MRK) pill to treat Covid-19 that would be available to dozens of low-income countries. But the effort was greeted with mixed reactions by patient advocates.
The Gates Foundation plans to provide different types of incentives so that eight generic manufacturers, all of which have already signed voluntary licensing deals with Merck, will be positioned to produce a sufficient quantity of the drug, called molnupiravir, as quickly as possible. The goal is to convince the generic companies to ready their facilities rather than wait to gauge demand for the pill — which early data suggests could reduce hospitalizations and deaths — before ramping up.
