This Biopharma Giant May Have Just Found Its Ticket To Riches In the COVID-19 Market

After a long year and a half spent enduring the coronavirus pandemic, signs of normalcy are starting to show in many U.S. businesses and communities, thanks in part to pharmaceutical breakthroughs including vaccines. But even in a post-pandemic world of readily available vaccinations, COVID-19 patients will still exist and need treatment. After two previously failed attempts to develop new antiviral treatments, biopharma giant Merck (NYSE: MRK) has come up with something it believes will provide care for those in need.

Specifically, Merck has been collaborating with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics on a clinical development program for molnupiravir, an oral antiviral medication. Management is hoping this partnership will finally pay off in the form of an outpatient COVID-19 treatment.

In late 2020, Merck had to void a $365 million deal with the U.S. government when it could not provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with supportive data after failed trials of a drug, referred to as MK-7110, that the company acquired as a result of the buyout of OncoImmune. Its newest attempt, molnupiravir, could potentially be a final effort on Merck's part to develop treatment aimed at newly diagnosed patients, after realizing that molnupiravir did not produce successful results with hospitalized patients.

Source Fool.com