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including Mereks-melnupiravicand The Gates hat work on a wide range of Treatments Despite the early hopes for treatments like remdesivir and monoclonal antibodies, it took nearly two years to find effective antiviral treatments for COVID. In a pandemic, two years is an eternity: If the virus had been deadlier, that kind of delay would have been catastrophic. As we roll out the treatments that we now have, we should also be building the systems that will allow us to develop and deliver future treatments much faster. Right now, we need to: Expand access to antiviral treatments, including Merck's molnupiravir and Pfizer's Paxlovid, Merck's molnupiravir, and Gilead's Remdesivir. . The Gates Foundation is placing advance orders on behalf of low- and middle-income countries so that generic drugmakers will start to manufacture them even when they're still going through regulatory approvals--these orders eliminate the risk that the generic companies will lose money if the approvals don't come through. Every country needs to figure out the logistics of treating anyone who tests positive and is at significant risk of severe disease, which will add a powerful incentive for people to get tested in the first place. Over the longer term, I see three more areas of innovation in therapeutics that deserve the world's attention. Prepare a library of millions of antiviral compounds that are designed to attack common respiratory viruses, including ones that work on a wide range of variants. If we have three or more of these compounds, we will combine them