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 therapeutic applications of Ivermectin as a protease inhibitor.

Protease inhibitors have an important role in the treatment of COVID-19. Therefore, the United Kingdom recently secured 250,000 patient courses of the Pfizer PAXLOVID protease inhibitor, as well as 480,000 patient courses of Merck Sharp Dohme’s polymerase inhibitor Lagevrio. Evidence for ivermectin as a treatment of COVID-19 is inconclusive at this stage. However, the Therapeutic Taskforce continues to monitor any emerging evidence for ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment from clinical trials worldwide. This includes clinical trials considering ivermectin’s potential application as a protease inhibitor.