Denmark on Thursday approved an antiviral COVID-19 drug produced by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for at-risk patients with symptoms, including the elderly. The Scandinavian country became the first in the European Union to approve the antiviral treatment called molnupiravir. The pill is still under review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). “We are recommending the pill treatment because we believe that the benefits outweigh the harms for those patients who are most at risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19,” Kirstine Moll Harboe at the Danish Health Authority said in a statement. “At the same time, we are fully aware that this is a new and unapproved treatment about which we do not yet have much knowledge,” she added. Last month, Britain became the first country globally to approve the treatment that can be taken as a pill at home. Health officials in the United States are in the process of …