Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has (a) included and (b) made an assessment of the potential merits of including low dose Naltrexone on its RAPID C-19 programme.

The multi-agency research to access pathway for investigational drugs for COVID-19 (RAPID C-19) was established in 2020 to ensure that treatments for COVID-19 were made available safely to National Health Service (NHS) patients as soon as possible. The initiative has enabled rapid patient access to therapeutics including dexamethasone, remdesivir, tocilizumab and sarilumab and baricitinib, novel antibody treatments such as sotrovimab, and the two oral antivirals molnupiravir and nirmatralvir+ritonavir (Paxlovid).

RAPID C-19 has made no assessment of low dose naltrexone for COVID-19 and its role in reviewing potential COVID-19 treatments is now ending as the NHS moves back to routine commissioning arrangements for these treatments. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will therefore appraise new licensed treatments, as appropriate, through its standard Technology Appraisal process and will continue to update its COVID-19 rapid guidelines as the evidence base evolves.