MANILA, Philippines — The Manila city government has received 40,000 capsules of the experimental antiviral drug Molnupiravir for use at COVID-19 hospitals in the city.
Mayor Isko Moreno led the ceremonial turnover of 120 bottles of the capsules to the Manila COVID-19 field hospital yesterday. Each bottle contains 40 capsules.
“Today, you are going to witness the first local government unit to acquire another breakthrough in making our people safe,” Moreno said.
The city government procured the investigational oral drug for COVID-19 at P87.50 for each capsule, cheaper than the cost of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab.
Molnupiravir is administered under compassionate special permits.
In a Facebook post, infectious disease expert and Department of Health Technical Advisory Group member Dr. Edsel Salvana cautioned that the use of Molnupiravir is “only for high-risk populations with confirmed mild or moderate COVID infection under compassionate use and only for five days.”
“If you have severe COVID, it doesn’t really work and other meds need to be used. Never take any meds without proper medical consultation,” he added.