Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 20 February (HL5171), and (2) the conclusion from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that "Evusheld is not recommended for vulnerable adults who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 because there is not enough evidence of its effectiveness against current variants and those likely to be circulating in the next 6 months", what steps they will now take to ensure that immunocompromised individuals have access to passive immunisation via relevant human-derived antibody products from convalescent plasma, instead of through monoclonal antibody treatments.

For treatment of patients with COVID-19, the REMAP-CAP and RECOVERY trials both found convalescent plasma did not provide any benefit to the overall patient group. However, detailed analysis within subgroups of the REMAP-CAP data found there was a likelihood that people who are immunosuppressed may benefit from convalescent plasma with very high antibody levels - unfortunately there was insufficient data for a definite result. Consequently, REMAP-CAP has now decided to reopen the convalescent plasma arm to collect more data.

Further research is needed to determine the benefit of using human-derived convalescent plasma, or products derived from it, for immunocompromised individuals before this could be approved and available to patients. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including immunoglobulins and convalescent plasma.