Posted on 10/13/2021 7:49:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Some social media users have been saying that Merck’s experimental COVID-19 antiviral product molnupiravir is a rebranded version of the anti-parasitic Ivermectin. Two disease experts have told Reuters that this is not the case and that the chemical make-up of the two drugs is different.
One tweet (here ) reads, “Ivermectin is a safe cure that was removed from CDC treatment protocol. Merck refurbishes it and *poof, it’s a miracle pill. Further proof that Big Pharma is in the business of creating customers.”
Similar posts on Facebook are visible here and here .
One reads, in part, “The pharmaceutical giant Merck just “developed” a pill that does the same thing as Ivermectin.”
The professors
Dr. Stephen Griffin, virologist and associate professor at the University of Leeds ( here ), told Reuters that molnupiravir is not repackaged ivermectin.
The two drugs have “dissimilar chemistry,” he said. “There is no way that Merck is doing this,” he said.
“Molnupiravir is a derivative of a nucleotide that, predictably, interferes with the RNA replication of the virus. While Ivermectin does also have a defined mechanism of action, BUT it’s against ion channels found in parasites,” Griffin said.
Paul Auwaerter, the Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases ( here ) at Johns Hopkins Medicine told Reuters via email that the only similarity the two drugs have is that they “have been brought to the FDA for market approval by the Merck Company.”
The professor pointed to structural differences between the two drugs, which can be explored in papers here and here and drug class differences. “Ivermectin is classified as a macrocyclic lactone. It is derived from Streptomyces avermitilis which is a bacterium." Molnupiravir, rather, is classified as a nucleoside analog (like some HIV medications) and works as an antiviral.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Like some HIV medications per the article.
NO THANK YOU!!!!
bkmk
Yeah. because they say so. And the pretty pictures they print out to show us too.
From the very same people that have lied through their teeth at every step of this event.
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