Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the UK Health Security Agency of the effectiveness of the drug Evusheld against the Omicron variant of covid-19; and if she will make that treatment available on the NHS to people who are immunocompromised.

The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group, which considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies. It concluded that there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment at this time.  The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and agrees that it should now be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation.

The Department wrote to patient groups on 5 September 2022 with information on this decision and evidence considered. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.