> "The discovery of molnupiravir at Emory was supported in part by funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. (Dec 23 2021, Emory press release)."
The university then did the usual thing in these cases, i.e. the researchers involved set up a small biotech company (Ridgeback Biotherapeutics) which was then acquired by Merck. This was made possible by US Bayh-Dole law from the 1980s, which allows universities like Emory to exclusively license taxpayer-finaced research to private entities, instead of allowing anyone to develop it.
The U.S. government then dumped an initial $1.2 billion into purchases, followed by another $1 billion more recently, a little over a year ago:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-government-buy-14-mln-mo...
Despite 'promising clinical trial results' (which may or may not have been manipulated to give good outcomes), in reality the drug seems to be of relatively little benefit, only slightly decreasing length of illness and with no effect on death or hospitalization rates (Dec 2022 study in BMJ):
> "No benefit was seen in terms of hospital admissions or death rates. The group treated with molnupiravir had 105 cases of death or hospital admission (0.8%), and the control group had 98 cases of death or hospital admission (also 0.8%)."
> "The median average length of illness in patients who took molnupiravir was nine days, which compared with 15 days in the control group. After adjusting for other factors the study authors found that patients taking molnupiravir recovered 4.2 days more quickly than patients in the control group."
https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o3055
Incidentally, and anecdotally, I came down with a fairly solid case of Covid-19 a year ago, and the cheap over-the-counter medication, diphenhydramine (Benadryl being the most well-known brand) knocked down my symptoms very effectively. This seems to bear out in research, although of course the U.S. government isn't going to fork over $2 billion to acquire a supply, and this drug is long out of patent (with a good safety record, though I did end up taking one tablet every 3 hours or so, a bit more than recommended). YMMV - but this is not an ivermectin-type claim:
https://ufhealth.org/news/2021/two-common-compounds-show-eff...
The whole molnupiravir story reeks of academic corruption, government contracting kickbacks, pharmaceutical profit-seeking, abuse of the clinical trial process, etc. It also reveals why researchers have little incentive to examine out-of-patent drugs as treatments for emerging diseases.