Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that prophylactic use of synthetic monoclonal antibody treatments are available where immunosuppressed patients are not able to suspend their immunosuppressant medication or have not responded to a third primary covid-19 vaccine dose.

Ronapreve (casirivimab and imdevimab) is the first neutralising monoclonal antibody to receive marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to treat and prevent COVID-19. The interim clinical policy was updated on 4 November to expand treatment access to a wider group of hospitalised patients, which may include immunocompromised patients. The current supply of Ronapreve is limited globally and the clinical policy prioritises the most vulnerable patients for whom this treatment will have the largest beneficial impact.

The RAPID C-19 collaboration has enabled active multi-agency oversight of national and international trial evidence as it emerges for COVID-19 therapies, both in potential treatment and prophylactic indications. Where material evidence is identified, this has enabled the rapid formation and implementation of United Kingdom wide clinical access policies. To date, the evidence has most strongly supported treatment indications, but the evidence around prophylactic use will continue to be actively reviewed.