Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 24 March (HL7023), why antiviral treatments for COVID-19 are not commercially available; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of such treatments.

The pharmaceutical companies producing antivirals have not made these treatments commercially available to the private health care sector in the United Kingdom. The supply of the COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is commercially available to the Government for National Health Service patients and the devolved administrations. Pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the commercial decisions on the availability of their products.

The Merk Sharp and Dohme clinical trial of molnupiravir showed that the drug reduces the relative risk of hospitalisation or death by 30%. Pfizer’s trial of nirmatrelvir+ritonavir showed an 89% reduction in hospitalisation or death compared to a placebo. The PANORAMIC national study will inform our understanding on how oral antiviral treatments perform in the UK, where the majority of the population is vaccinated. This will inform future decisions on access for patients in the UK.