Irish firm is in ‘advanced’ stages of an ingestible coronavirus vaccine, Leo Varadkar tells MPs

A breakthrough from an Ireland-based pharmaceutical giant could see a Covid-19 treatment administered via a pill.

MSD Pharmaceutical, known as Merck & Co. in the United States and Canada, is in the “advanced” stages of producing a tablet treatment for the virus.

Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told his parliamentary Fine Gael party about the development on Wednesday night.

The drug is molnupiravir, which is taken by mouth and works by causing errors in the virus’s RNA during replication. This hinders their ability to produce more viruses, limiting their ability to spread to others.

It is currently in stage 2/3 trials and the first results on effectiveness are expected between January and March of this year. The treatment was initially developed to fight the flu.

The company had previously discontinued two experimental vaccines after early data from the trial showed they failed to elicit an immune response comparable to a natural or existing vaccine.

The US drug giant has extensive operations in Ireland at six sites in Dublin, Cork, Carlow, Tipperary and Meath. The company employs 2,700 people in the United States.

Meanwhile, a dispute between the European Union and pharmaceutical AstraZeneca escalated yesterday over a delay in deliveries of coronavirus vaccines.

AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot addressed the dispute for the first time, rejecting the EU’s claim that the company was not meeting its contractual commitments.

Soriot said the vaccine delivery figures in AstraZeneca’s contract with the 27-nation bloc were targets, not firm commitments, adding that the company was unable to meet them due to problems in rapidly expanding production capacity.

“Our contract is not a contractual commitment, it is a best effort,” he said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica.

After a third round of talks aimed at resolving the dispute last night, Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said there was a “continuing lack of clarity on the delivery schedule.”

He urged AstraZeneca to come up with a clear plan for rapid delivery of the EU-reserved doses for the first quarter.

However, in a message posted on Twitter, Ms. Kyriakides noted a “constructive tone” in discussions with Mr. Soriot.

AstraZeneca said last week that it planned to cut initial deliveries in the EU from 80 million to 31 million doses due to production problems at its manufacturing plants on the continent.

But the EU has claimed that it will receive even less than that: just a quarter of the doses that member states were supposed to receive during January-March 2021.

Currently, the government projects to have 1.1 million doses of vaccines in the country by the end of March.

However, this is because it intensifies considerably in the following months, with 1.5 million doses arriving in April and 2 million in May.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said September remains the ‘aspiration’ to vaccinate everyone in the country, despite supply-related problems.

He added that the vaccination program is “going well” but that delays in the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine could hamper the government’s deadline.

“September is still absolutely the aspiration,” she told RTÉ Today With Claire Byrne yesterday.

“We cannot promise … because it is a projection based in part on vaccines that have not even been requested for authorization, and on delivery schedules that have yet to be fully agreed.”

Vaccinations for those 70 and older should begin within the next two weeks, he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Varadkar told a Fine Gael party meeting last night that the data from Israel, where nearly half the population received its first blow, was “encouraging.”

Earlier this week, a study published in Israel found that less than 1% of people in a group of fully vaccinated patients have developed the virus.

MSD Pharmaceutical has confirmed that the drug is molnupiravir.