The Philippines has granted emergency use approval to Merck’s COVID-19 treatment pill for adult patients who have a risk of developing severe illness.

In October, 31 hospitals in the Philippines were allowed to use Merck′s antiviral pill, molnupiravir, under a compassionate use permit even before it was approved for wider use.

The country has also approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children aged between 5 and 11 years so that the vaccine, to be administered in pediatric formulation, could be offered once it becomes available, stated the head of its Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rolando Enrique Domingo.

The country has also reduced the waiting time for a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine to three months in order to tackle the highly mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus… (ET Healthworld – Reuters, December 23, 2021)