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 effectiveness of taking hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19.

The Therapeutics Taskforce is continuing to monitor any new, high quality evidence on COVID-19 therapeutics and has been following recent findings on hydroxychloroquine.

In June 2020, the Government-funded RECOVERY trial concluded that there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. For other patient cohorts, there is limited evidence at this stage to suggest hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating COVID-19 infection. The Therapeutics Taskforce is closely monitoring the large number of active trials that are yet to produce results and will assess any new evidence once this is available. The Department and its arm’s length bodies are prepared to act rapidly should any trial readouts prove positive at sufficient scale and significance.