Coronavirus: Preventive Medicine

(asked on 28th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of prophylactic use of antivirals for the immunocompromised in tackling covid-19.


Answered by
Maggie Throup Portrait
Maggie Throup
This question was answered on 7th March 2022

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. While to date the evidence has most strongly supported treatment use, the evidence around prophylactic use will be reviewed.

As part of the PANORAMIC national study, there will be a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) sub-study which is expected to begin later in spring. This PEP sub-study 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, a monoclonal antibody treatment and niclosamide, an antihelminthic drug, as prophylactic drugs administered over a six-month period in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients.

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