by Chris Black
Merck is manufacturing molnupiravir at a cost of $17.74 per five-day course but charging the US government $712 for the same amount of medicine, according to a joint report by drug-pricing experts at Harvard and King’s College Hospital in London.
That’s 40 times the price for the pill that is said to cut the risk of hospitalization with Coronavirus in half, The Intercept says.
To add insult to injury, the US government spent at least $29 million on the drug’s development — $10 million from the DoD and a further $19 million from the National Institutes of Health.
Molnupiravir, the new medicine being hailed as a “huge advance” in the treatment of Covid-19, costs $17.74 to produce, according to a new report. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price. t.co/7SKwW257TU
— The Intercept (@theintercept) October 7, 2021