An antiviral pill used to treat high-risk adults for COVID-19 was approved by an advisory committee within the Food and Drug Administration Tuesday. The new pill is manufactured by the American Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.
The committee approved it in a narrow 13 to 10 vote, according to the New York Times.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a high-risk adult as someone with underlying medical issues such as diabetes or heart conditions and anyone over the age of 65.
Pfizer submitted their antiviral COVID-19 drug to the FDA for approval earlier this month.
The Merck pill has been shown to reduce hospitalization and death by 50% while the Pfizer pill has been shown to reduce hospitalization by 89%.
The approval decision comes as a new COVID-19 variant called Omicron has been detected in more than a dozen countries.
