December 10 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government said U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) will back its initiatives for the promotion of immunisation, control of malignant diseases and support to digitalisation of healthcare.
Serbia is one of the first countries in Europe that has managed to provide to its citizens both vaccines and innovative therapies for treating COVID-19, MSD senior vice president Cyril Schiever said during a meeting with Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic on Thursday, according to a government press release.
During the meeting, Brnabic presented the project for construction of BioCampus for bioinformatics, biotechnology, biodiversity and biomedicine, with a capacity of 1,300 students and users in Belgrade.
Last month, the director of Serbia's Republic Fund of Health Insurance, Sanja Radojevic Skodric, said the country expects to receive in December its first doses of Molnupiravir, the COVID-19 antiviral drug of MSD. Serbia will be the first European country to receive Molnupiravir which can be used to treat adults with COVID-19 who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at increased risk of developing severe symptoms, Skodric said.
Earlier in November, Serbia signed an agreement with Pfizer for the delivery of the company's experimental antiviral candidate Paxlovid for treatment of COVID-19.