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 role of covid-19 antivirals in reducing pressures on the NHS.
No specific assessment has been made. However, clinical trial results indicate that the dual oral antiviral nirmatrelvir/ritonavir resulted in a relative risk reduction of hospitalisation or death by 88% within five days of symptom onset, compared to placebo in non-hospitalised, high-risk adults with COVID-19. Further results show that the oral antiviral molnupiravir administered within five days of symptom onset to high-risk, non-hospitalised patients resulted in a relative risk reduction of 30% in the composite primary outcome of hospitalisation or death at day 29.