THE Health Ministry will procure the antiviral drug molnupiravir to treat Covid-19 patients because of its efficacy against variants and in reducing hospitalisations, Khairy Jamaluddin said.

Molnupiravir has been showed to reduce hospitalisations by 50%, he said.

“It is also effective on other Covid-19 variants that are more virulent such as Gamma, Delta and Mu,” the health minister said in a statement today.

“The government through the Health Ministry today signed a Letter of Undertaking to procure molnupiravir from Merck Sharp & Dohme.

“With this agreement, the government is to procure 150,000 courses to treat Covid-19 patients.”

Khairy said this decision is part of the country’s preparation to enter the endemic phase of Covid-19.

“As part of learning to live with the virus, we are increasing innovative treatment options as part of our ‘arsenal’ to fight Covid-19.”

Khairy said vaccination is still important and using molnupiravir does not mean inoculation is no longer needed.

“The function of the vaccine is to reduce infections and if caught, to make infections less severe.

“Molnupiravir does not prevent infections. It is only useful to those who get infected.

“We need both measures to reduce the burden of Covid-19.” – October 7, 2021.