The European Union's medicines watchdog could start a review of an oral Covid drug produced by the US pharmaceutical firm Merck within days, a senior official has said, according to AFP.

Merck said last week that its drug, molnupiravir, was shown to reduce hospitalisations by 50 per cent, bringing closer the dream of a simple pill to treat the coronavirus pandemic.

“What I can say is that indeed we will be considering whether to start a rolling review for this compound in the next days,” Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the European Medicines Agency, told journalists.

Cavaleri said the Amsterdam-based agency was aware of some “topline results that are being communicated by the company” about its new drug.