U.S. drug company Merck strikes deal with nonprofit to share COVID pill formula with poorer nations


U.S. drug company Merck has granted U.N.-backed nonprofit Medicines Patent Pool a royalty-free license for its experimental new COVID-19 drug, allowing Merck's treatment to be "manufactured and sold cheaply" in the world's poorest nations, reports The New York Times.
The deal — which is set-up in hopes of expanding the drug's availability, widening its manufacturing base, and potentially pushing down its price, per The Washington Post — permits companies in 105 countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, to sublicense the formula for the "promising" antiviral pill and begin making it for their own populations, per the Times. Earlier in October, Merck reported that the "easy-to-take pill" is "shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in some cases," writes the Post.
Some treatment-access advocates have welcomed the new deal, which will hopefully right some of the lopsided COVID treatment access the world is seeing now.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"The Merck license is a very good and meaningful protection for people living in countries where more than half of the world's population lives," James Love, head of Knowledge Ecology International, told the Times. "It will make a difference."
Added Charles Gore, director of nonprofit Medicines Patent Pool: "This is hopefully going to make things a lot easier in terms of keeping people out of hospital and stopping people dying in low- and middle-income countries," he said.
What's more, so long as the WHO classifies COVID-19 as a public health emergency, neither Merck nor its partners — Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Emory University — will receive royalties from drug sales under the agreement, per the Post.
Added Director of Public Citizen and MPP boardmember Peter Maybarduk: "This license will not solve everything, but it is a starting point and an example."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.
-
Should you add your child to your credit card?
The Explainer You can make them an authorized user on your account in order to help them build credit
-
Cracker Barrel crackup: How the culture wars are upending corporate branding
In the Spotlight Is it 'woke' to leave nostalgia behind?
-
'It's hard to discern what it actually means'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Colorado
speed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's study
Speed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-off
Speed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet undersea
Speed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 years
Speed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study finds
Speed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves baby
speed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beat
speed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study