Molnupiravir has been newly approved in the United Kingdom for the treatment of COVID-19 after displaying promising survival benefits in clinical trials. An analysis estimated and compared potential generic minimum costs of molnupiravir and also observed countries eligible for pricing discounts as agreed by Merck and The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). 

Drug prices for molnupiravir were searched utilizing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) data extracted from global shipping records, which was then compared with national pricing data from a range of low, medium, and high-income countries. Annual API export volumes from India were utilised for estimating the current availability. Further, the Trends of molnupiravir drugs prices were also evaluated for the last 6-month period and mean daily COVID-19 diagnosis rates were calculated for the countries eligible for voluntary licensing. 

The following results were obtained-

• Molnupiravir can be generically manufactured at a very low per-course cost of $9.00. 
• Over the past 6 months, prices of molnupiravir have markedly fallen, and wide variations between countries exist on comparing reported international prices. 
• Only 9% of diagnosed patients worldwide reside in the countries eligible for voluntary licensing. 

Thus the Price range of molnupiravir was found to be from $20 to $750 per course. Only 9% of worldwide COVID-19 diagnoses come from countries covered by voluntary licenses. Middle-income countries not eligible for voluntary licensing should issue compulsory licenses to ensure access to molnupiravir at affordable prices. 

SOURCE- PREPRINT (Version 1) Research Square, December 15th, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1169509/v1