Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings of the RAPID C-19 independent advisory group there have been since September 2022; and what plans they have to continue to review these processes to ensure that new treatments for COVID-19 are made available safely to National Health Service patients as soon as possible after they are approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

The RAPID C-19 individual advisory group has met five times since 1 September 2022. As we move from emergency pandemic arrangements towards routine commissioning of COVID-19 medicines, the time-limited role of RAPID C-19 is effectively at an end.

RAPID C-19’s role was to monitor emerging trial evidence for the clinical effectiveness of potential treatments in real time during the pandemic and was essential to assess whether evidence was strong enough to warrant consideration of interim access prior to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) assessment.

The NICE Multiple Technology Appraisal (MTA) for COVID-19 treatments and Single Technology Appraisal (STA) for tixagevimab and cilgavimab (Evusheld) prophylaxis are in progress and moving rapidly and NICE’s final guidance will replace current interim pandemic arrangements when published. To support movement towards routine commissioning activity for COVID-19 medicines and clarify routes to access for stakeholders, RAPID C-19 is no longer reviewing information on the medicines currently in the MTA and STA.

Following publication of the final guidance, NICE will monitor for emerging evidence that may affect the current recommendations as part of standard guidance surveillance processes. New treatments in clinical development for COVID-19 will be identified and selected in accordance with NICE’s health technology evaluation topic selection processes.