Britain says 6,000 more people needed for trial of Merck COVID pill
The health ministry said that while 4,500 trial participants had signed up, thousands more were needed to gather the data needed.
The study, called Panoramic, was launched to assess how the antiviral should be used in a largely vaccinated population, given it was assessed in clinical trials on unvaccinated people.
"Antivirals are a hugely important addition to our response
to COVID-19," said
"Getting people enrolled onto this study is vital, not just in protecting the most vulnerable now, but in ensuring we can deploy these medicines more widely as soon as possible."
Prime Minister
The health ministry said it had bought 2.23 million courses of the Merck (MRK) drug, as well as 2.75 million courses of an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE) which it has not yet started to deploy.
Merck's (MRK) pill was shown to reduce hospitalisations and deaths by around 30% in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals early in the course of the illness.
The government said that over-50s and those with an
underlying medical condition who had tested positive for
COVID-19 on a PCR test or who were unwell with COVID symptoms in
the last five days could sign up for the Panoramic study.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout
Editing by