Researchers Link COVID-19 Drug to New Virus Mutations in Patients

Merck disputes study, says it relies on 'circumstantial associations'

A health care professional prepares to enter a COVID-19 patient's room in a file photo. Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

A widely used COVID-19 treatment drug could be linked to mutations that create new variants of the disease, according to researchers in a new pre-print study.

Published in Medxriv (pdf), researchers cited an analysis of more than 13 million viral genomes in worldwide databases and found that the drug Lagevrio, also known as molnupiravir, that there were mutations linked to the drug. Certain mutations, they wrote, were more common in nations that widely used the drug, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.