Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the role of antiviral drugs in protecting people who are immunocompromised from covid-19.

Antivirals for COVID-19 are designed to be taken in the early stages of infection to stop progression to more severe disease and hospitalisation. Vaccines continue to be the best way to protect people from COVID-19, however, antivirals and other treatments provide a necessary additional line of defence by playing a crucial role in protecting patients, particularly those for whom the vaccine may be less effective such as the immunosuppressed.

The Government has procured two COVID-19 novel antivirals, molnupiravir and PF-7321332+ritonavir (co-packaged as Paxlovid). A total of 4.98 million courses of antivirals have been procured, this is more than any other European country. Since 16 December 2021, molnupiravir has been available for a cohort of patients whose immune systems mean they are at higher risk from COVID-19. As of 6 February, 5,787 patients within this cohort have received an antiviral. PF-7321332+ritonavir will be available to these patients from 10 February.

Antivirals are also currently being deployed through the PANORAMIC national study in order to collect more data on how antivirals work in the United Kingdom with a mostly vaccinated population. The Department of Health and Social Care will provide a further update on this in due course.