(Reuters) -Merck has signed nine deals to sell more than about 3 million courses in total of its experimental COVID-19 pill molnupiravir to governments around the world as nations scramble to tame the pandemic.
While the drug’s approval in the United States is still pending, Britain on Thursday became the first country in the world to approve the pill.
Last week the company reached a deal with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool that will allow more companies to manufacture generic versions of the pill with a royalty-free licence applying to 105 low- and middle-income countries. So far Merck has agreed to license the drug to several India-based generic drugmakers.
The company said it plans to produce 10 million courses of the treatment by the end of this year, with at least 20 million set to be manufactured in 2022.
The following table lists countries that have already expressed interest in the pill, sorted alphabetically:
COUNTRY VOLUME PRICE TIMING OF SOURCE
DELIVERY
Australia 300,000 doses nL1N2R02UO
EU nL1N2R80ZA
France 50,000 doses nP6N2Q901D
Indonesia nL4N2RL2KW
Malaysia 150,000 courses nL1N2R306L
Philippines 300,000 courses 100-150 pesos November 2021 nL4N2RN2GN
($1.97-$2.96) per
pill
Singapore nL1N2R305J
South Korea 20,000 courses nL4N2R21J1
Thailand 200,000 courses nL1N2R00D9
UK 480,000 courses nL4N2RV2FV
U.S. 1,700,000 courses $700 per course nL1N2R00D9
(Reporting by Ina Kreutz, Agnieszka Gosciak and Federica UrsoEditing by Mark Potter)
