The shares of American multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc (NYSE: MRK) is currently trading with good gains of 11% following the announcement from the company that the oral antiviral drug it developed as a treatment for COVID-19 with partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics reduced the risk of hospitalization or death in at-risk adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID by about 50% in an interim analysis of data from a Phase 3 trial. The company's stock was changing hands at $83.66 at the time of writing.