Patients at risk of severe Covid-19 will be offered the chance to receive antiviral drugs and antibody treatments from this week if they contract the virus, the government has said.
Britain was the first country to approve molnupiravir, an antiviral drug that has been shown to cut hospitalisations by about a third provided it is taken early.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said that the NHS would begin distributing the 500,000 courses that have been bought, prioritising the most vulnerable.
He said they were an extra tool in getting through the winter. “We now have a three-pronged pharmaceutical defence against Covid-19,” he said. “Supportive drug treatments, vaccines, and most recently specific antiviral drugs.”
Most people will initially be offered the drugs through a trial, with Oxford University scientists hoping to recruit 10,000 people who have recently received a PCR positive test and who are either over 50 or have an underlying condition. Half will receive the antivirals and half will not — to gather data on effectiveness. From next week those at the highest risk, such as people having cancer treatment or who are immunocompromised, will be offered molnupiravir and the antibody treatment ronapreve.
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Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that the arrival of the drugs was a milestone. “This opens up a new era for the treatment of Covid-19, one where we can begin to cover every phase of contracting this deadly disease — whether it be before you catch it, just after you catch it, if you develop symptoms or if you require hospital care.”
Van-Tam added, though, that part of the way to ensure limited supplies was used effectively was by conducting the trials. “Now we have specific antivirals coming on stream. They work by targeting the virus directly at a much earlier stage in the disease, to prevent replication and stop people from developing some of the nastier complications that often follow. They can often be deployed in the community — keeping people out of hospital.”
He added: “Science is nothing without trial participants and volunteers. They are the heart of the pandemic discoveries and I thank them for their immense contribution.”
When the UK became the first country to approve the treatment, interim data involving 800 patients showed it halved the hospitalisation rate among those prone to the most severe disease. With more data, however, that figure has dropped to about a third.
