According to a study, Merck & Co.’s COVID-19 drug is causing new virus mutations in some patients, highlighting the risk of attempting to purposely alter the pathogen’s genetic code.
The researchers from the United States worked alongside those from the United Kingdom’s Francis Crick Institute, Imperial College, and the University of Liverpool to carry out the study, the results of which were published as a preprint last week ahead of peer review.
Merck COVID-19 Drug Linked To New Virus Mutations
The FDA approved Lagevrio, also known as molnupiravir, for at-risk people who test positive for COVID-19 in December 2021.
The researchers discovered that Lagevrio-linked mutations were proportionally more common in countries and age groups where the medicine is widely used, such as Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, based on an analysis of more than 13M viral genomes in global databases.
The researchers observed a low frequency of mutations in nations where Lagevrio is not approved, such as Canada and France.
According to the researchers, Lagevrio-induced mutations were discovered in tiny patient groups, indicating that new versions are spreading.
According to a study released Friday without peer review on the medRxiv website, drug-linked alterations of the virus have not yet been proven to be more immune-evasive or deadly. However, their very presence indicates what some scientists believe are possible hazards in the drug’s wider use, which was recently approved in China.
Lagevrio works by inducing mutations in the Covid genome that inhibit the virus from multiplying in the body, lowering the likelihood of severe disease. Before it was approved in late 2021, some scientists warned that because of how it works, the medicine could cause mutations that could be harmful. The preprint paper has reawakened those worries about the Merck drug.
“There’s always been this underlying concern that it could contribute to a problem generating new variants,” said Jonathan Li, a virologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “This has largely been hypothetical, but this preprint validates a lot of those concerns.”
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Merck’s Response
Merck denies that its medicine is responsible for harmful variations. “There is no evidence to indicate that any antiviral agent has contributed to the emergence of circulating variants,” Merck spokesman Robert Josephson said in an email in response to questions about the study.
He stated that new mutations have emerged during the course of the pandemic as a result of the virus spreading wildly, and Lagevrio can play a key role in the solution. Merck cited animal studies that indicated their medication did not cause mutations.
The study authors believe the mutations were caused by molnupiravir treatment, but they don’t have concrete evidence that the mutations occurred in patients who took their medicine, according to Josephson in a follow-up email.
Merck dropped as much as 1.2% in New York on Wednesday before recovering some of its losses to close down 0.4%.
The US Food and Drug Administration, which approved Lagevrio in late 2021, stated that it does not comment on third-party research and collaborates with Covid drugmakers to analyze the activity of their drugs against variations.
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