Yes, molnupiravir - a pill to treat Covid - seems to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, assuming Merck’s press release from last week holds up.
But it is yet another story of the US health care system and drug development gone awry.
A Miami hedge-fund manager and his wife - Wayne and Wendy Holman - are likely to make hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, on it - and they took almost no risk. They basically got in the way of Merck licensing it from Emory University, where taxpayers had paid for its early development (this is how we make drugs in the United States, friends).
Added bonus: almost 20 years ago, Wendy Holman, who at the time had a different husband and a different last name, saw her name pop up in the same insider trading scandal that ensnared Martha Stewart. It too involved a drug company.
(Wendy Commins Blake aka Holman denied wrongdoing, was never charged, and eventually married Wayne Holman. A few years later the newlyweds found their way to Miami's Star Island, where they bought a mansion for $28.8 million and the one next to it for $18 million. You read that right.)
—
The Washington Post had an long piece on the ugly little story of Ridgeback in June 2020. But now that Uncle Joe is president and not the Orange Man, the Post tries not to write anything that might reduce your confidence in Big, Medium, or Small Pharma (and by extension vaccines).
“Ridgeback Biotherapeutics had no laboratories, no manufacturing facility of its own and a minimal track record when it struck a deal in March with Emory University to license an experimental coronavirus pill invented by university researchers with $16 million in grants from U.S. taxpayers.”
By May, Ridgeback had sold the rights to molnupiravir to Merck for “an undisclosed upfront payment, specified milestones and a share of the net proceeds of EIDD-2801 and related molecules, if approved.”
Neither Merck nor Ridgeback has ever disclosed how much Merck paid Ridgeback, nor the royalty rates on the drug. But Merck has said it plans to charge $700 for a course of molnupiravir in the United States and that it expects to produce 10 MILLION courses by year-end 2021, implying $7 billion in sales within months. (Forbes reports the actual cost of the drug is under $20 per course, based on what Indian manufacturers plan to charge.)
Merck has added about $20 billion in market capitalization since it announced the results.
But the real winners are the Holmans. Their royalty rate is based on “net profits,” per Merck’s 10-K - though Merck does not disclose how those will be calculated, or what the rate is. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume $600 of the $700 Merck is charging will be net profit (this is probably low).
If the Holmans are receiving a 5 percent royalty, they will make $300 million from this year’s courses alone; 10 percent would net them $600 million; and 15 percent $900 million.
If you don’t follow Dr. Pierre Kory on (dare I say it, Tw@tter, do so. He’s blowing (another) gasket over this unnecessary, very expensive Ivermectin redux. Don’t know about you, but my utter disgust of big pharma grows exponentially each and every day. This. Must. Stop.
And all the little kids sing, "Build Back Better! Build Back Better!" What a joke.
Add to this nightmare, that Ivermectin was a Merck patent, before it went generic. So since they can't make money on that "pill," they need a new one that's hella expensive.
I work in biopharma as technical sales and business development. I used to think that I was working with companies that had some benevolent cause and intent. How naïve. Within the last 18 months, including content like this piece, has reiterated how wrecked the whole industry has always been and that I am collecting a paycheck from the devil.
This is NOT capitalism! When progressives complain about capitalism this is the kind of scenario they are talking about - This is an example of crony capitalism and we should all look down on it and try to minimalize it from happening - Crony capitalism is the enemy of capitalism because it hurts all the hard working ppl doing the right thing
Vitamin D is already better than this Toxic AntiViral !!
"A Spanish study found giving supplemental vitamin D3 (calcifediol) to hospitalized patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 — in addition to standard care — reduced ICU admissions by 82% and mortality by 64%"
Meanwhile it’s almost impossible to obtain Ivermectin in the USA which for not much $ makes recovery from Covid almost guaranteed at a tiny fraction of the $ of the aforementioned Merck product.
We don't need anymore dangerous drugs to fight a virus that is less lethal than the flu! We already have safe and effective treatments! The new COVID vaccines and drugs are not about saving lives, it's about Big Pharma's big fleece! This is so disgusting! I've never been one to wish anything bad to anyone, but all these COVID hustlers need to get their comeuppance, SOON!
Not to mention we have at least two pills that multiple studies show better efficacy than this pill if given early. And both are currently available for literally pennies. But of course bid pharma, the Biden administration, and most doctors trash them as not effective and potentially harmful. This is full on fraud and a major scandal. But don’t expect the media to do anything but support the lies!
$700 for a moderately effective drug with known safety issues versus about four dollars for a Nobel prize winning drug with greater efficacy and a sterling long-term safety record.
You would think it would be an easy choice but not when tens of billions of dollars are involved. These people only care about money, not your health or mine.
Well from the first Covid treatments, the phrases "Immune Escape" and"Vaccine Dependent Enhancement" entered the lexicon of the non-medical population of the world. Get ready for a new vocabulary word : "mutagenic", "inducing or capable of inducing genetic mutation" according to Merriam's Online. Why will you hear this word in every day conversation over Covid treatments ? Maybe because of this article - https://www.science.org/news/2020/05/emails-offer-look-whistleblower-charges-cronyism-behind-potential-covid-19-drug. Or perhaps because of reports having to do with concerns that molnupiravir may be so friendly to a recipient's DNA to the point of potentially leaving a gift that keeps on taking, in the form of genetic code that may cause cancer. Or could it be due to a company named Pharmasset that apparently abandoned a similar drug in 2003 after discovering its potential for causing mutagenic properties. Oh what the heck, mutagenic is a good word to know, probably gets you an extra few points on the retirement SAT exam that will become mandatory to pass in a few years if you want to receive benefits the government promised but can't afford to pay.
But it certainly makes sense that the US government will look favorably upon molnupiravir from a price point perspective. I mean after all, the US government cannot allow itself to look gauche when purchasing a new drug on the taxpayers' dime. Which is why they'll likely and hurriedly rubber stamp the $700-a-course medicine that may cause cancer, rather than approve a medicine that saved hundreds of millions of people from Covid in India and Africa that only costs the weekly servant wage of $50 to save a life. !
The important question is is it better than ivermectin? Or hcq, for that matter, or vitamin D? The real issue is pharma and government enablers herding us to patent medicines when generics work fine. Corruption rules the medical industry. Oregon is building a case for grand jury to prosecute CDC manipulation of data to boost the pharma case. Heads will roll.
Anyone who has been following this narrative on indie media could see this coming. By now we all could prob make a living being fortune tellers with how obvious most of these narratives will play out. Reckoning will come at some point when there’s a tipping point of how many people become awake to it. It’ll be a long, slow burn but eventually it’ll happen. This isn’t a sustainable way for society to function. It goes against all the laws of nature.
So, they repurposed Hydroxy (if you look at the chemical compounds, they are very similar to this new drug) because Hydroxy, zinc, and D3 are not going to make anyone millions of dollars. Only, they have left a key ingredient out - D3 or zinc? - who can say without getting it and breaking down the compounds, because where the hydroxy combo is effective, this is only 50% cure, and the studies they did on pregnant woman resulted in 60+ birth defects, so what is it that they are pushing now on an oblivious population who puts their trust in these companies? With more and more evidence coming out that this was all planned, it makes you wonder how long they've been sitting on this to now get their share of the wealth pie.
This drug is a known mutagenic! Missing skulls and teeth in offspring of animal trials. Another disaster in the making for the health of Americans. Don’t ever take it!!
Being disabled, unable to work (or in fact be productive at all), and as a consequence, eternally poor, I sometimes think... why can't I be a rich ahole? :\... nah, I'd rather be me, I'm not taking advantage of anyone. I'm not abusing power.
50% reduction in hospitalization and death…..Ivermectin has an 88% reduction of hospitalization and death……but no $$$ for Big PHARMA. I have also heard the the new Merck pill may be carcinogenic. Swallow at your own risk.
no one is talking about an old cheap drug that's quietly being used to keep covid patients out of the hospital right now, it has multiple studies that confirm it's powerful anti viral and anti inflammatory properties, indomethacin, search it nd the studies for yourselves, I've been on it for over two years and have been exposed for extended periods on several occasions to people who tested positive, I'm unvaxxed and have not been sick
According to an article in The Defender, “The cost of a complete five-day course of Molnupiravir is $700 — or $70 per pill. That amounts to a 4,000% markup over what it costs Merck to make the drug.”
So funny how the left hates Big Corporations, and I think they used to hate Big Pharma along with the others (actually leftist governments LOVE Big Corporations, they are really an extension of government, with a two-way street, but that's another subject.) But now Big Pharma is a hero and they are all on board to help them make money. Schizophrenic!
Which is to say....it's actually ivermectin, with the required minisque change/adjustment in manufacturing, which allows them to package and sell it as a "new drug"....these people are evil, not dumb. Question though....it is my understanding, if a drug exists that can treat covid, then the vaccine cannot be "required" or be given "emergency authorization"....yes or no?
DISGUSTINGDISGUSTINGDISGUSTING. I guess they forgot you can't take it with you and they may burn in the afterlife. We are not just heading for the New World Order, we are in it. People say they are "woke" but they are in a socialist induced coma. Wonder if they will like it when they wake up?
Off topic, but I don't know where else to ask- what happened to the Alex/Joe Rogan interview? I've been looking on Spotify every day because I can't wait to hear it but it's nowhere to be found. Has it been censored? Is it still coming? If anyone knows please tell me.
Honestly, I don’t trust any future drugs that I don’t know for sure they work. My confidence in Public Health officials is completely eroded.
Off topic but if anyone needs some motivation/inspiration watch todays Dan Bongino show on Rumble. On that point I really believe we are not just a small percentage of people that feel like we do. I think it’s the media trying to make us think we are resulting in less people standing up to all this craziness. Today my work released its first communication about the mandates. it says that they believe in vaccination but are pro choice in the matter and that there’s nothing officially in place by OSHA but that they are trying to prepare for it and will be sending us a survey. I am glad that they at least gave us a heads up and expressed they were for personal choice but I was a little angered that they said that the vaccines work when it clearly does not based off of science that we do have available to us, so not sure what’s gonna happen but if people in the grocery store industry, which is what I work in right now, walk off the job it’s going to be a super big problem. The only way we can win this fight is that we’re all going to have to sacrifice something in order to achieve it and it may be uncomfortable for a little while but we’re gonna have to push through it
My husband is on an “orphan drug” to stay alive & live a near normal existence. The cost is in the high six figure range every 7 weeks. The basis of the drug was developed in university labs paid for with gov’t subsidies. The rest was supplemented by gov’t due to the rarity of the disease. If Democrats do to Medicare what they are planning, I fear he will be deemed too expensive to keep alive. Worked all our lives to pay into this system. How did we get here?
Maybe they should reimburse the $16 million taxpayer money first. I know a Doctor that would like to use ivermectin to save lives but he is not allowed to prescribe it. If he stands up to ask about why, he might loose his license.
People are so tired of ALL the lies and evil profiteering. Reading today aspirin is a good treatment for COVID. Never mind that was never previously recommended....oh no, we needed to let the fever run its course and kill the virus. And, of course, we now know many in government were treated with ivermectin while it was denied to the masses. Now the reports on Remdesivir and how it was and is being used are just more shock to the system. It will not end until enough people say NO!
Here, somebody needs to spread the word about real research. You know, the kind that the US refuses to do and refuses to publish from other knowledgeable countries!!!
If you don’t follow Dr. Pierre Kory on (dare I say it, Tw@tter, do so. He’s blowing (another) gasket over this unnecessary, very expensive Ivermectin redux. Don’t know about you, but my utter disgust of big pharma grows exponentially each and every day. This. Must. Stop.
Or..... we could just take ivermectin....
And all the little kids sing, "Build Back Better! Build Back Better!" What a joke.
Add to this nightmare, that Ivermectin was a Merck patent, before it went generic. So since they can't make money on that "pill," they need a new one that's hella expensive.
Our bodies have become investment opportunities for heartless psychopaths, whether we like it or not.
I work in biopharma as technical sales and business development. I used to think that I was working with companies that had some benevolent cause and intent. How naïve. Within the last 18 months, including content like this piece, has reiterated how wrecked the whole industry has always been and that I am collecting a paycheck from the devil.
This is NOT capitalism! When progressives complain about capitalism this is the kind of scenario they are talking about - This is an example of crony capitalism and we should all look down on it and try to minimalize it from happening - Crony capitalism is the enemy of capitalism because it hurts all the hard working ppl doing the right thing
You forgot the part where it works the same way Ivermectin does...
Vitamin D is already better than this Toxic AntiViral !!
"A Spanish study found giving supplemental vitamin D3 (calcifediol) to hospitalized patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 — in addition to standard care — reduced ICU admissions by 82% and mortality by 64%"
Meanwhile it’s almost impossible to obtain Ivermectin in the USA which for not much $ makes recovery from Covid almost guaranteed at a tiny fraction of the $ of the aforementioned Merck product.
We don't need anymore dangerous drugs to fight a virus that is less lethal than the flu! We already have safe and effective treatments! The new COVID vaccines and drugs are not about saving lives, it's about Big Pharma's big fleece! This is so disgusting! I've never been one to wish anything bad to anyone, but all these COVID hustlers need to get their comeuppance, SOON!
Not to mention we have at least two pills that multiple studies show better efficacy than this pill if given early. And both are currently available for literally pennies. But of course bid pharma, the Biden administration, and most doctors trash them as not effective and potentially harmful. This is full on fraud and a major scandal. But don’t expect the media to do anything but support the lies!
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil..
1 Timothy 6:10 ASV
They may get away with it here but not on eternity. God is just
Let's go Brandon!
Nothing surprises me anymore but it sure pisses me off.
Nauseating.
This is great investigative journalism, Alex, something that is extremely rare, if not absent, in "journalism" today.
$700 for a moderately effective drug with known safety issues versus about four dollars for a Nobel prize winning drug with greater efficacy and a sterling long-term safety record.
You would think it would be an easy choice but not when tens of billions of dollars are involved. These people only care about money, not your health or mine.
This is absolutely obscene. And I thought Paul and Nancy were financial scammers... the Holmans have outdone the Pelosis!
Well from the first Covid treatments, the phrases "Immune Escape" and"Vaccine Dependent Enhancement" entered the lexicon of the non-medical population of the world. Get ready for a new vocabulary word : "mutagenic", "inducing or capable of inducing genetic mutation" according to Merriam's Online. Why will you hear this word in every day conversation over Covid treatments ? Maybe because of this article - https://www.science.org/news/2020/05/emails-offer-look-whistleblower-charges-cronyism-behind-potential-covid-19-drug. Or perhaps because of reports having to do with concerns that molnupiravir may be so friendly to a recipient's DNA to the point of potentially leaving a gift that keeps on taking, in the form of genetic code that may cause cancer. Or could it be due to a company named Pharmasset that apparently abandoned a similar drug in 2003 after discovering its potential for causing mutagenic properties. Oh what the heck, mutagenic is a good word to know, probably gets you an extra few points on the retirement SAT exam that will become mandatory to pass in a few years if you want to receive benefits the government promised but can't afford to pay.
But it certainly makes sense that the US government will look favorably upon molnupiravir from a price point perspective. I mean after all, the US government cannot allow itself to look gauche when purchasing a new drug on the taxpayers' dime. Which is why they'll likely and hurriedly rubber stamp the $700-a-course medicine that may cause cancer, rather than approve a medicine that saved hundreds of millions of people from Covid in India and Africa that only costs the weekly servant wage of $50 to save a life. !
The important question is is it better than ivermectin? Or hcq, for that matter, or vitamin D? The real issue is pharma and government enablers herding us to patent medicines when generics work fine. Corruption rules the medical industry. Oregon is building a case for grand jury to prosecute CDC manipulation of data to boost the pharma case. Heads will roll.
Anyone who has been following this narrative on indie media could see this coming. By now we all could prob make a living being fortune tellers with how obvious most of these narratives will play out. Reckoning will come at some point when there’s a tipping point of how many people become awake to it. It’ll be a long, slow burn but eventually it’ll happen. This isn’t a sustainable way for society to function. It goes against all the laws of nature.
So, they repurposed Hydroxy (if you look at the chemical compounds, they are very similar to this new drug) because Hydroxy, zinc, and D3 are not going to make anyone millions of dollars. Only, they have left a key ingredient out - D3 or zinc? - who can say without getting it and breaking down the compounds, because where the hydroxy combo is effective, this is only 50% cure, and the studies they did on pregnant woman resulted in 60+ birth defects, so what is it that they are pushing now on an oblivious population who puts their trust in these companies? With more and more evidence coming out that this was all planned, it makes you wonder how long they've been sitting on this to now get their share of the wealth pie.
Almost every single political story is a story about corruption.
Don't buy this. You can get ivermectin online from frontline doctors or thru FLCCC alliance or from abroad.
For the sane 50% of the country…
Big Pharma & the medical industry have destroyed their own credibility (never mind the hedgies)
After Covid, do you trust your doctors or the pharmaceutical companies anymore?
They all have a Sisyphean task to regain that trust.
It’s unlikely, they ever will.
This drug is a known mutagenic! Missing skulls and teeth in offspring of animal trials. Another disaster in the making for the health of Americans. Don’t ever take it!!
Merck Ivermectin REDO. Absolutely disgusting. How many lives could have been saved ? Money is the route of all EVIL.
Yet another in your face example of crony capitalism. What’s even more disgusting is that I actually live nearby to these thieves.
Being disabled, unable to work (or in fact be productive at all), and as a consequence, eternally poor, I sometimes think... why can't I be a rich ahole? :\... nah, I'd rather be me, I'm not taking advantage of anyone. I'm not abusing power.
50% reduction in hospitalization and death…..Ivermectin has an 88% reduction of hospitalization and death……but no $$$ for Big PHARMA. I have also heard the the new Merck pill may be carcinogenic. Swallow at your own risk.
Molnupiravir has another use. It's used to treat (wait for it. . . ) horses.
Horse encephalitis, to be specific.
FDA: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."
Unless, of course, the "horse" meds cost $700 per course.
no one is talking about an old cheap drug that's quietly being used to keep covid patients out of the hospital right now, it has multiple studies that confirm it's powerful anti viral and anti inflammatory properties, indomethacin, search it nd the studies for yourselves, I've been on it for over two years and have been exposed for extended periods on several occasions to people who tested positive, I'm unvaxxed and have not been sick
According to an article in The Defender, “The cost of a complete five-day course of Molnupiravir is $700 — or $70 per pill. That amounts to a 4,000% markup over what it costs Merck to make the drug.”
So funny how the left hates Big Corporations, and I think they used to hate Big Pharma along with the others (actually leftist governments LOVE Big Corporations, they are really an extension of government, with a two-way street, but that's another subject.) But now Big Pharma is a hero and they are all on board to help them make money. Schizophrenic!
Which is to say....it's actually ivermectin, with the required minisque change/adjustment in manufacturing, which allows them to package and sell it as a "new drug"....these people are evil, not dumb. Question though....it is my understanding, if a drug exists that can treat covid, then the vaccine cannot be "required" or be given "emergency authorization"....yes or no?
What in THE hell. Nice digging on this.
DISGUSTINGDISGUSTINGDISGUSTING. I guess they forgot you can't take it with you and they may burn in the afterlife. We are not just heading for the New World Order, we are in it. People say they are "woke" but they are in a socialist induced coma. Wonder if they will like it when they wake up?
Off topic, but I don't know where else to ask- what happened to the Alex/Joe Rogan interview? I've been looking on Spotify every day because I can't wait to hear it but it's nowhere to be found. Has it been censored? Is it still coming? If anyone knows please tell me.
Honestly, I don’t trust any future drugs that I don’t know for sure they work. My confidence in Public Health officials is completely eroded.
Off topic but if anyone needs some motivation/inspiration watch todays Dan Bongino show on Rumble. On that point I really believe we are not just a small percentage of people that feel like we do. I think it’s the media trying to make us think we are resulting in less people standing up to all this craziness. Today my work released its first communication about the mandates. it says that they believe in vaccination but are pro choice in the matter and that there’s nothing officially in place by OSHA but that they are trying to prepare for it and will be sending us a survey. I am glad that they at least gave us a heads up and expressed they were for personal choice but I was a little angered that they said that the vaccines work when it clearly does not based off of science that we do have available to us, so not sure what’s gonna happen but if people in the grocery store industry, which is what I work in right now, walk off the job it’s going to be a super big problem. The only way we can win this fight is that we’re all going to have to sacrifice something in order to achieve it and it may be uncomfortable for a little while but we’re gonna have to push through it
My husband is on an “orphan drug” to stay alive & live a near normal existence. The cost is in the high six figure range every 7 weeks. The basis of the drug was developed in university labs paid for with gov’t subsidies. The rest was supplemented by gov’t due to the rarity of the disease. If Democrats do to Medicare what they are planning, I fear he will be deemed too expensive to keep alive. Worked all our lives to pay into this system. How did we get here?
We call it "cancermectin". But if it can kill the jab I don't care. about the money, the mutations or anything. Let Them Fight.
This is just sickening! Enough!! What a greedy bunch of rich bast….!! All at the expense of us!! Enough!!!
And then there’s this from Zero Hedge. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/proceed-caution-your-own-peril-mercks-covid-super-drug-poses-serious-health-risks
Any updates on the Joe Rogan episode?
You are wrong, she only started Ridgeback to alleviate human suffering, not to earn hundreds of millions of dollars /sarc
https://giving.upenn.edu/alumni-career-spotlight-wendy-holman-w97/
Maybe they should reimburse the $16 million taxpayer money first. I know a Doctor that would like to use ivermectin to save lives but he is not allowed to prescribe it. If he stands up to ask about why, he might loose his license.
People are so tired of ALL the lies and evil profiteering. Reading today aspirin is a good treatment for COVID. Never mind that was never previously recommended....oh no, we needed to let the fever run its course and kill the virus. And, of course, we now know many in government were treated with ivermectin while it was denied to the masses. Now the reports on Remdesivir and how it was and is being used are just more shock to the system. It will not end until enough people say NO!
Mulnupiravir sounds awesome, considering it's almost exactly effective as low-dose aspirin: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9378195/Low-dose-aspirin-cuts-COVID-19-patients-risk-admitted-ICU-dying-nearly-HALF.html
Here, somebody needs to spread the word about real research. You know, the kind that the US refuses to do and refuses to publish from other knowledgeable countries!!!
https://acrosssthestars.wordpress.com/2021/10/11/the-covid-cribsheet/
It would be interesting to learn from someone who really knows the comparative mechanisms of action of ivermectin and molnupiravir.