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 potential merits of offering covid-19 antiviral treatments as a pre-exposure prophylaxis to people classed as clinically extremely vulnerable.

The RAPID C-19 collaboration has enabled multi-agency oversight of national and international trial evidence as it emerges for COVID-19 therapies for potential treatment and prophylactic indications. To date, the evidence has strongly supported treatment use, although the evidence on prophylactic use will be kept under review.

As part of the PANORAMIC national study, there will be a post-exposure prophylaxis sub-study which is expected to begin later in spring. This will investigate the effect of prescribing oral antivirals to those who are a household contact of a COVID-19 positive individual. In addition, the PROTECT-V study is trialling sotrovimab and niclosamide as prophylactic drugs administered over a six-month period in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients.