The Gates Foundation will allocate up to $120 million to help lower-income countries get an experimental COVID-19 drug being developed by the US drugmaker Merck in the battle against coronavirus, it said yesterday.
The money will support efforts to develop and make generic versions of what could become the first oral antiviral medication for the disease if it wins regulatory approval, the foundation said in a statement.
Today’s commitment will ensure that more people in more countries get access to the promising drug Molnupiravir, but it’s not the end of the story – we need other donors, including foundations and governments, to act,” Co-Chair Melinda French Gates said.