Government seems inclined to license 3 indigenous Covid drugs

The Advisory Council for the Registration of Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients made the recommendation Wednesday following a resolution passed in the National Assembly allowing the use of locally made drugs to treat Covid.

The ministry has not identified the companies that will make the drugs.

Vietnam has been trialing the use of a molnupiravir drug made by U.S. company Merck to treat patients with mild symptoms since last year. It is distributed for free under special management.

More than 300,000 doses of the drug have been distributed so far, but the ministry has yet to issue a license for its commercial use.

Vietnam has also been using two other antiviral drugs, favipiravir and remdesivir, and they have not been licensed for commercial distribution either.

There have been more than 1.81 million Covid cases in the country and 33,475 deaths.