Dr. Scott Gottlieb said that Merck's Covid pill 'can make a real difference

October 13, 2021: -Dr. Scott Gottlieb said why he’s optimistic about Merck’s Covid antiviral pill following the drugmaker asked the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to authorize its pill to treat people with mild to moderate Covid symptoms.

“The topline data from this Merck study was the best treatment effect we’ve seen from an orally available antiviral drug in the treatment of any respiratory pathogen, to make a difference,” said the former FDA chief in the Trump administration.

If the agency is signing off on the drug, it will be the first pill shown to work against Covid-19, and Americans could get it by the year-end.

Gottlieb told CNBC Merck’s pill is part of an “overall, significant improvement in our therapeutic toolbox against this virus, not only with vaccines and therapeutics but with more accessible diagnostic tests.”

Host Shepard Smith asked Gottlieb about masking rules across the country. Gottlieb told Smith that he thinks decisions made locally and noted the varying prevalence of the delta variant across the U.S.

“We’ve seen sharp declines in the south, where delta’s run its course, so cases are decreasing very sharply in populous states like Texas and Florida, but you see pretty dense epidemics in the midwest and plains states, and we still don’t know how the northeast and the northern states are going to fare,” Gottlieb said.

He predicts that a Covid-19 delta wave could hit northern U.S. states, despite higher vaccination rates and prior infection rates.

“I still think that there’s a delta wave that’s going to sweep across the northern states, and in the northeast, it’s not going to be nearly as dense as what you saw in the south, but we still are in store for more spread,” Gottlieb said.