MERCK TO SHARE COVID-19 PILL

Merck announced that it will share its antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 with developing countries in a move to broaden access to the promising treatment.

Merck and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said they had entered a licensing agreement for the treatment with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed organization, that will allow the pill to be shared with 105 low- and middle-income countries.

Merck, Ridgeback and Emory University, where it was invented, will not receive royalties from the license as long as COVID-19 is still a public health emergency of international concern, as designated by the World Health Organization.

Pressure on vaccine makers to follow: The move by Merck and its partners could be an important precedent, given that advocates are pushing other companies, including COVID-19 vaccine makers, to also share their formulas and know-how with developing countries.

“Important step by Merck, which will further highlight the need for measures needed to convince and to enable more COVID vaccine manufacturers to take similar steps,” tweeted Tom Bollyky, director of the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Walensky: ‘Right direction’ but must be ‘vigilant’

Rochelle Walensky

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday the U.S. is “heading in the right direction” but must stay “vigilant” as the winter approaches.

Walensky reported during a briefing that the seven-day daily average of COVID-19 cases has declined to about 65,900 per day as of Tuesday, a 16 percent reduction from last week.

“Down from our peak in early September, we are now heading in the right direction,” she said. “But with cases still high, we must remain vigilant heading into the colder, drier winter months.”

Hospitalizations and deaths have also dropped from peaks in recent months, with COVID-19 hospital admissions falling 54 percent since the last week of August when the highly transmissible delta variant was pummeling the country.

The seven-day average for hospitalizations reached about 5,500 per day this week in a 12 percent decrease from the previous week.

While the death rate has dropped, Walensky noted that the average for daily deaths still remains higher than 1,000 fatalities, with a 1,100 average reported Tuesday.

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Guyana to Begin Vaccinating Children As Young As Five Years Old

The Guyana government says it will begin vaccinating children ages five to 11 next week once approval is given by the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

“Starting from next week, we are the examining the possibility of doing the vaccination of the five to 11 age group because we are anticipating that the US FDA would approve the Pfizer vaccine for this age group as well, so we will have another cohort of people that we will have to work on,” said Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony.

US media reports noted that Pfizer’s request to roll out COVID-19 vaccines for Americans as young as five years old cleared a key regulatory hurdle Tuesday after a panel of the Food and Drug Administration’s outside vaccine advisers voted by a majority to back Pfizer’s request.

Guyana is currently administering the vaccine to children 12 to 18 years, along with pregnant and nursing women.

Earlier this week, the health minister noted the disparity in children 12-18 years taking the second dose of the vaccine and also noted that there needs to be more uptake of the first dose of the vaccine, with the current fully vaccinated rate of 17,498 or 24 percent of the adolescent population.

“Our approach has been that once we go to a school, open it up to the entire community so anybody within that age group can come to the school that we are operating in and they can get vaccinated. We have seen some of that but in other cases, I think people felt that only people going to that school can come and I think that has caused some confusion so we are working with the ministry of education to correct that so that we can appeal to more people,” Dr. Anthony said.

The health minister said the ministry will continue going into schools and working with the education ministry to ensure children of that age group are vaccinated as well as advising parents to ensure their children are immunized so that they could return to school.

CMC

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