Full treatment of new Covid pill may cost up to Rs 3,000: Report

Merck's Molnupiravir was recently approved by DCGI for emergency use in India. How much will it cost?

Merck's oral pill Molnupiravir, recently approved by India's central drug authority for emergency use, is likely to cost between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 for full treatment, the Economic Times reported.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) allowed 13 drugmakers including Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr. Reddy’s to make the antiviral drug, as India gears up to fight a fresh wave of the pandemic which may be propelled by the new variant Omicron.

The drugmaker had said that it planned to implement "a tiered pricing approach based on World Bank country income criteria to reflect countries' relative ability to finance their health response to the pandemic," the report said.

Also Read | Omicron will soon replace Delta as dominant global variant: Experts

The company added that it is committed to ensuring that all nations have access to medicine through licensing agreements it signed with generic drugmakers globally.

As per conditions, the drug should be sold by retail outlets only under the prescription of medical specialists and the recommended dose should be 800 mg twice daily for 5 days.

Other companies which got approval from DCGI include Natco Pharma, MSN Laboratories, Hetero Drugs, Optimus Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma, Mylan, Strides Pharma Science, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Torrent Pharma and BDR Pharmaceuticals.

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