{"id":23229,"date":"2021-10-13T09:03:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T09:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/?p=23229"},"modified":"2021-10-13T09:27:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T09:27:09","slug":"mercks-revolutionary-covid-drug-molnupiravir-will-cause-long-term-mutation-effects-even-cancer-and-genetic-defects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/?p=23229","title":{"rendered":"Merck\u2019s \u201crevolutionary\u201d COVID drug molnupiravir will cause long-term mutation effects, even cancer and genetic defects."},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists Warn Merck\u2019s COVID \u2018Super Drug\u2019 Poses Serious Health Risks: \u2018Proceed With Caution At Your Own Peril\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

HAF<\/a>October 9, 2021<\/p>\n

As it turns out, all the scientists and doctors who insisted that Merck\u2019s \u201crevolutionary\u201d COVID drug molnupiravir is extremely safe weren\u2019t faithfully adhering to \u201cthe science\u201d after all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because according to a report published Thursday by Barron\u2019s, some scientists are worried that the drug \u2013 which purportedly cut hospitalizations in half during a study that was cut short \u2013 could cause cancer or birth defects<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This comes after Merck has recently called the drug \u201cphenomenal,\u201d and a \u201cgame-changer<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much for having a \u201cstrong safety profile,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> as Dr. Scott Gottlieb claimed in an interview on the day Merck first publicized the research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perfectly understandable why Merck might choose to play down this safety risk: assuming it\u2019s approved, the drug is widely expected to be one of \u201cthe most lucrative drugs ever\u201d \u2013 which is one reason why Merck\u2019s shares soared into double-digit territory after the announcement.<\/p>\n

As we reported earlier this week<\/a>, Merck and its \u201cpartner\u201d Ridgeback Biotherapeutics will profit immensely by charging customers up to 40x what it costs to make the drug, <\/strong>which Ridgeback originally licensed from Emory University for an \u201cundisclosed sum\u201d. The drug was developed with funding from the federal government.<\/p>\n

According to Barron\u2019s<\/a>, some scientists who have studied the drug believe that its method of suppressing the virus could potentially run amok within the body.<\/p>\n

Some scientists who have studied the drug warn, however, that the method it uses to kill the virus that causes Covid-19 carries potential dangers that could limit the drug\u2019s usefulness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Molnupiravir works by incorporating itself into the genetic material of the virus, and then causing a huge number of mutations as the virus replicates, effectively killing it. In some lab tests, the drug has also shown the ability to integrate into the genetic material of mammalian cells, causing mutations as those cells replicate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If that were to happen in the cells of a patient being treated with molnupiravir, it could theoretically lead to cancer or birth defects.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In particular, Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and the director of biochemical pharmacology at Emory who studied the drug while it was being developed, and published a number of papers on NHC, the compound that\u2019s the active ingredient in the drug. He published a paper that showed the drug can produce a reaction like the one described above, and insisted it shouldn\u2019t be given to young people \u2013 especially pregnant women \u2013 without more data<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Schinazi told\u00a0Barron\u2019s\u00a0that he did not believe that molnupiravir should be given to pregnant women, or to young people of reproductive age, until more data is available. Merck\u2019s trials of molnupiravir have excluded pregnant women; the scientists running the trial\u00a0asked male participants to \u201cabstain from heterosexual intercourse\u201d while taking the drug, according to the federal government website that tracks clinical trials.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Barron\u2019s even shared a paper published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in May<\/a> by\u00a0Schinazi and scientists at the University of North Carolina which reported that NHC can cause mutations in animal cell cultures in a lab test designed to detect such mutations \u2013 something Merck claims it has tested for. The paper\u2019s authors concluded that the risks for molnupiravir \u201cmay not be zero\u201d.<\/p>\n

Merck told Barron\u2019s<\/a> that it has run \u201cextensive tests\u201d on animals which it says show that this shouldn\u2019t be an issue. \u201cThe totality of the data from these studies indicates that molnupiravir is not mutagenic or genotoxic in in-vivo mammalian systems,\u201d a Merck spokesman said.<\/p>\n

Still, scientists and doctors who have studied NHC say that Merck needs to \u201cbe careful,\u201d and it\u2019s not just Schinazi warning about the drug\u2019s potential risks.<\/p>\n

Dr. Shuntai Zhou, a scientist at the Swanstrom Lab at UNC, said \u201cthere is a concern that this will cause long-term mutation effects, even cancer.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zhou says that he is certain that the drug will integrate itself into the DNA of mammalian hosts. \u201cBiochemistry won\u2019t lie,\u201d<\/strong> he says. \u201cThis drug will be incorporated in the DNA.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Merck hasn\u2019t yet released any data from its animal studies, but the scientists believe that it would take long-term studies to show that the drug is truly totally safe.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cProceed with caution and at your own peril,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>wrote Raymond Schinazi, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the division of biochemical pharmacology at the Emory University School of Medicine, who has studied NHC for decades, in an email to\u00a0Barron\u2019s.<\/em><\/p>\n

Analysts are already warning that these questions about the drug\u2019s safety suggest the reaction in Merck\u2019s shares was a little \u201coverblown\u201d, to say the least. Investors apparently were so eager for a new \u201cpandemic panacea\u201d (now that the mRNA jabs have proven to be much less effective than advertised) that they didn\u2019t ask too many questions about safety, or even question the paucity of data. One analyst for SVB Leerink Dr. Geoffrey Porges described investors\u2019 reaction from Friday as \u201cwishful thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even once the FDA authorizes the drug, Dr. Porges believes it will come with strict limitations on who can and can\u2019t use it. \u201cI think it is effectively going to be a controlled substance\u201d,<\/strong> Dr. Porges said, adding that the risks to pregnant women, or women who may soon become pregnant, could present thorny problems for the FDA\u2019s advisory committee reviewing the drug.<\/p>\n

Given that the safety risks of the drug seem well-documented already, Wall Street\u2019s gushing about the drug\u2019s prospects \u2013 \u201cit really is THAT good\u201d,<\/strong> one analyst insisted<\/a> \u2013 seems like an idiotic blunder in retrospect. The product of what one might call \u201cmagical thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Source: <\/em>ZeroHedge.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists Warn Merck\u2019s COVID \u2018Super Drug\u2019 Poses Serious Health Risks: \u2018Proceed With Caution At Your Own Peril\u2019 HAFOctober 9, 2021 As it turns out, all the scientists and doctors who insisted that Merck\u2019s \u201crevolutionary\u201d COVID drug molnupiravir is extremely safe weren\u2019t faithfully adhering to \u201cthe science\u201d after all. Because according to a report published Thursday … <\/p>\n

\u03a3\u03c5\u03bd\u03ad\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03bd\u03c9\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,10],"tags":[217,90],"class_list":["post-23229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-85","category-10","tag-217","tag-90","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23230,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23229\/revisions\/23230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evaggelatos.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}