Although treatment for COVID-19 has improved, treatments for many patients suffering severe symptoms are grossly underused because they require an IV, according to a report from the Associated Press. The current state of treatment underscores the need for a convenient medicine such as a pill to treat patients before they need hospitalization. Obstacles for developing a COVID-19 pill include the difficulty of developing drugs for respiratory diseases because doses have to be high enough for the medicine to reach deep into the lungs yet not so high that they’re toxic, and the slow pace of research due to the priority given to vaccine development.
A government-sponsored study for the first COVID-19 treatment, Remdesivir, wasn’t conducted until the end of April 2020, and Remdesivir is the only antiviral COVID-19 medicine now available. Currently, several companies, including Pfizer, Roche, and AstraZeneca, are testing antivirals in pill form. Molnupiravir, a drug from Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, shows the biggest promise so far. If successful, the drug could be taken at home when symptoms first appear, similar to how antiviral drugs for the flu are used now.
