Egypt: Approves | Molnupiravir | Emergency Use

The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) said in a statement that more companies, currently under review, will manufacture the drug by US pharmaceutical giant Merck.

In a separate statement by the Ministry of Health, the head of the EDA mentioned that local companies "have so far succeeded in producing 25,000 Molnupiravir packages, with enough raw materials available to manufacture around 150,000 additional packages."

Egypt is the first country in Africa and the Middle East, and the fourth worldwide, to approve the anti-COVID drug Molnupiravir, according to Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.

Molnupiravir has received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as the first oral capsule to treat COVID-19. It can reduce hospitalizations and deaths by half for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 illness.

Molnupiravir can cut hospitalizations and deaths by 30% among individuals at high risk of COVID-19, according to Merck.

Molnupiravir will only be allowed in hospitals to ensure it is taken under full medical supervision and according to guidelines set by the relevant scientific committees to guarantee continuous therapeutic follow-up, the EDA said in its statement.

In comments to local newspaper El-Masry El-Youm, the Health Ministry spokesperson said Egypt is expected to receive AstraZeneca's Evusheld COVID antibodies to treat 50,000 patients.

Early in January, the spokesperson said Egypt was also expected to receive Pfizer's Paxlovid pills for the treatment of 20,000 COVID patients by the end of the month.

While Paxlovid and Molnupiravir are used to treat mild to moderate cases during the early stages of infection, Evusheld is designed to prevent COVID infections.

Some studies have found that when taken early in the infection, Paxlovid can reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by up to 89%.

Egypt's import of COVID drugs comes amid a significant surge in cases, with health authorities reporting that Omicron has become the dominant COVID variant across the country.

The World Health Organization recently said that while Omicron is less severe than the Delta strain, it still poses a risk, especially to unvaccinated individuals.

The Health Ministry has urged citizens to register for the COVID vaccine, as it is the best method for reducing deaths and severe infections.

In Egypt’s current wave of the pandemic, unvaccinated individuals are three times more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 compared to those who received two vaccine shots, and ten times more likely to be hospitalized compared to those who got a booster shot, according to data released by the Health Ministry on January 15.

So far, Egypt has imported around 132 million doses of various COVID vaccines and opened 1,393 vaccination centers, the acting health minister said during a meeting with the Prime Minister and top health officials last week.

The country has also administered around 60.5 million vaccine doses, including first and second shots, as well as half a million booster shots, the health minister noted.

Additionally, about 206,000 doses have been given to children aged 12 to 15, while around 1.4 million shots have been given to teens aged 15 to 18.