Representatives at Merck's Thailand office were not immediately reachable. The country has administered 55.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far, fully inoculating about 31% of the population. Merck has said it expects to produce 10 million courses of the treatment by the end of 2021. It has a US government contract to supply 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir at a price of $700 per course. A spokesman for the European Commission said Brussels may launch a joint procurement of the therapy for the bloc, a similar strategy used to buy COVID-19 vaccines, but there was no particular information on Merck's drug.

Source: bd News24 October 04, 2021 12:45 UTC