France cancels order for Merck's COVID-19 antiviral drug

France cancels order for Merck's COVID-19 antiviral drug France has cancelled its order for Merck & Co's COVID-19 antiviral drug following disappointing trial data and hopes instead to receive Pfizer's competing drug before the end of January, the health minister said on Wednesday. Mimosa Spencer,Emilio Parodi Reuters

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France is the first country to publicly say it has cancelled an order for the Merck treatment after the company released data in late November suggesting its drug was markedly less effective than previously thought, reducing hospitalisations and deaths in its clinical trial of high-risk individuals by about 30%.

A spokesperson for Merck said the country's planned purchase did not take place after the French health authority refused to authorise the pill earlier this month....

"The latest studies weren't good," Olivier Veran told BFM TV.

A spokesperson for Merck said the country's planned purchase did not take place after the French health authority refused to authorise the pill earlier this month.

The company said it continued to work with the European Medicines Association (EMA) on its regulatory review of the drug. It has deals to supply or sell the pill to over 30 countries and has shipped product to 12.

While vaccines are the main weapons against COVID-19 for governments, there are hopes Merck and Pfizer's experimental pills could be a game-changer in reducing the chances of dying or hospitalisation for those most at risk of severe illness.

France had placed an early order for 50,000 doses of the drug molnupiravir developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

The cancellation would not incur a cost, Veran said.

In Italy, the office of the special commissioner for the COVID emergency said on Nov. 18 it had received a mandate from the health ministry to buy 50,000 courses of Merck's pill and another 50,000 of Pfizer's one. ...