Until now, antiviral drug research has been a place of broken dreams and abandoned efforts, with few success stories to rival the miracle cures of antibiotics.

But with the creation of pills to kill the COVID-19 virus, the field may be nearing its “penicillin moment.”

Two new oral medicines made by Pfizer and Merck — convenient to take at home, for only five days — offer a remarkable 50% to 89% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk people if given soon after infection takes hold, according to company data.

Use of the Merck pill, known as molnupiravir, will be up for a vote by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee on Nov. 30, with authorization on track for December. Pfizer has not yet filed for FDA authorization for its drug, called Paxlovid, but says it plans to submit data “as soon as possible.”

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