Expert: Merck pill could overhaul COVID treatment

Drugmaker Merck says its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus.

It said Friday that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize the drug's use.

If cleared, the drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19. That could be a major step forward in global efforts to control the pandemic.

"This would allow us to treat many people much more quickly and, we trust, much less expensively," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in the research.

All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

A pill that could be taken at home could keep many patients out of the hospital.

"Although the virus is already in our bodies, if we can prevent it from multiplying, it can't spread further in our bodies and thus our disease severity is lessened," Schaffner said.

The results have not been peer reviewed by outside experts.

An independent group of medical advisers monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so strong.

Though Schaffner found the new treatment option exciting, he stressed the importance of getting people vaccinated.

"The vaccines prevent the disease completely. That's much better than having the disease develop and then having us rush to try to find a treatment that is at its best, partially effective," Schaffner said. "So the need for vaccination, the imperative for vaccination continues."