A World Health Organization-led program to ensure that poorer countries get access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments seeks to secure antiviral drugs for patients with mild symptoms for $10 per course.
Molnupiravir, Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) experimental pill, is likely one of the drugs, and other drugs are being developed to treat mild patients, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.
While outlining the goals of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) through September next year, the document states that the objective of the program is to deliver about 1 billion COVID-19 tests to poorer countries.
In addition, it also aims to secure drugs to be delivered to over 120 million patients worldwide, of the approximately 200 million new cases the WHO estimates in the next 12 months.
The document reveals how the WHO plans to increase the supplies of drugs and tests at a relatively low cost considering that poorer countries lost the vaccine race to rich countries who controlled a huge chunk of the world’s supply, leaving them with insufficient shots.
A spokesperson from ACT-A said the document, which was dated October 13, is still a draft pending and declined to comment on its contents before it became final. The document is scheduled to be sent to world leaders ahead of a G20 summit in Rome later this month.
The ACT-A will be asking the G20 and other donors to provide $22.8 billion as additional funding through September 2022. The funding requests is based on detailed estimates of the price of drugs, treatments and tests, which represents the largest cost of the program, in addition to the cost of vaccine distribution.
The funds will be needed to purchase and distribute vaccines, drugs and tests to poorer countries in order to bridge the huge gap of vaccine inequalities in the economic supply between rich and less developed countries.
So far, donors have pledged $18.5 billion to the program. Although Molnupiravir is not explicitly mentioned, the ACT-A document expects to pay $10 dollars per course for “new oral antivirals for mild/moderate patients.”
