Sharing a few threads on whether molnupiravir (new antiviral on the cusp of approval) risks generating new variants because the mutations it induces may, rarely but possibly, not kill the virus but generate viable variants instead. Many on the FDA panel who voted no raised this.https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1467611446053851145 …
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Here's a post by
@Dereklowe on this question, but also highlighting below the part where he wonders (as have others), if the already low reported benefit is there at all? (The trial data is really weird...) https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/rethinking-molnupiravir …pic.twitter.com/tGTd3jcvdb
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I think we can assume that there'll be some patient noncompliance (stopping early, skipping doses, erratic timing) as well as re-targeting (hoarded/left-over pills being shared). How does this affect this tail risk—not to the patient, but to society?https://twitter.com/Dereklowe/status/1467906065882927112 …
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To some asking: This mechanism doesn't apply to vaccines (vaccines aren't drugs—this is a drug specifically mutagenic to the virus), nor to Pfizer's antiviral (which targets enzymes, and is also not mutagenic to the virus). So concerns are only about this (or similar) drugs.
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FDA in a tight spot here. There are more effective and less risky options than this Merck drug, but if they fail to approve it, the usual anti-FDA crowd will go berserk that they are murdering people by witholding lifesaving treatment.
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They already are.
@humanigen has a highly effective monoclonal antibody that got shot down for an EUA. - Show replies
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Thank you. I wasn't aware Pfizer used a different mechanism. Its initial data proved much more promising
it remains that way.
*not a scientistThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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There’s a LOT that merits news coverage but gets none. This. Hunter Biden’s laptop. The people involved in the Maxwell trial. And more.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Feels like the Merck vs. Pfizer drugs are like night and day, and yet they keep getting lumped together in 95% of the news coverage I've seen.
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Merk will get more attention than it deserves while Pfizer will have to deal with the problems the other drug had created. The public builds opinions before they it has complete information (I have zero actual knowledge about this stuff, neither do I care about either company)
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