Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of broadening the eligibility list for covid-19 antiviral treatments to include diabetics.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel considers the latest evidence on the patients most at risk of adverse outcomes from COVID-19 and provides advice to the National Health Service on the appropriate patient cohorts for new therapies. Patients with diabetes were not identified in the initial patient cohorts currently receiving these treatments.
However, the PANORAMIC study is gathering further evidence on those patients who would benefit from oral antiviral treatments, including patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The results from this study will inform clinical access policy for these treatments through the NHS, including any expansion of the current eligible patient cohorts. Any such changes would be proposed by the NHS and agreed by the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have received a dose of the antiviral nirmatrelvir+ritonavir, known as Paxlovid, as of 30 June 2022.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Oral antivirals are currently available to the highest risk patients in England via COVID Medicines Delivery Units. Nirmatrelvir + ritonavir, co-packaged as Paxlovid, has been available to such patients since 10 February 2022. The most recent data available shows that as of the week ending 3 July 2022, 15,530 non-hospitalised patients in England have been treated for COVID-19 using Paxlovid.
Since 12 April 2022, some eligible individuals have accessed Paxlovid by enrolling in the PANORAMIC study. While fewer people will have accessed Paxlovid through this route, this information is not currently held centrally due to blinded clinical trial data.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the effect of pharmaceutical companies control of intellectual property on UK capacity to manufacturing covid-19 (a) vaccines and (b) therapeutic treatments.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government considers that the Intellectual Property (IP) framework has played an essential and positive role in the response to the pandemic. It has provided confidence for pharmaceutical innovators to both invest in R&D and form collaborative manufacturing partnerships, built upon trust and cooperation, thereby driving innovation. These voluntary licensing and technology transfer partnerships, have contributed to the rapid production of COVID-19 technologies, including unprecedented levels of manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines. IP has and will continue to allow us to meet our ultimate goal of saving lives.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to transition covid-19 treatments into routine healthcare provision, including placing covid-19 vaccinations into the National Immunisation Programme and the provision of antiviral treatments for recommended groups.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is working with the National Health Service and other partners to transition COVID-19 treatments such as antivirals, therapeutics, and vaccinations into routine healthcare provision. We aim to learn from the pandemic response to design a model which minimises the impact on other health and care services in times of greatest demand.
We await the results of the PANORAMIC study to determine how those who would benefit most from COVID-19 antivirals can continue to access treatments through the NHS, including the delivery of vaccinations.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the rollout of covid-19 antivirals; and what comparative assessment his Department has made of his Department's rollout of covid-19 antivirals with other comparator countries.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are continuing to monitor the deployment of COVID-19 antivirals. In the week commencing 6 June 2022, approximately 1,600 non-hospitalised patients in the United Kingdom have received these treatments, with the total number of patients treated at approximately 63,000.
The UK Health Security Agency is also monitoring the effectiveness of the COVID-19 therapeutics nirmatrelvir+ritonavir (Paxlovid), molnupiravir and remdesivir. Both molnupiravir and Paxlovid are being trialled as part of the PANORAMIC national study. Results from the molnupiravir section of the PANORAMIC national study are expected later this summer. The Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce is engaging with other nations on the use, deployment and evaluation of COVID-19 therapeutics and antivirals, which will inform our approach.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department's plans to expand the eligibility for antivirals to include patients that remain at moderate to high risk of developing severe covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The PANORAMIC national study is gathering further evidence on which patients would benefits most from oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19. The results from this study inform clinical policy on access to these treatments through the National Health Service, including any expansion of the eligible patient cohorts.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what data outcomes are being collected by the COVID-19 Medicines Delivery Unit following the administration of (1) anti-virals, and (2) Sotrovimab, to COVID-positive patients; and when this data will be published.
Answered by Lord Kamall
NHS England and NHS Improvement collect information from COVID Medicine Delivery Units (CMDUs) on COVID-19 treatments prescribed and administered. This data includes the number of eligible non-hospitalised patients receiving an antiviral or neutralising monoclonal antibody treatment through a CMDU and the number of eligible hospitalised patients treated with an antiviral, neutralising monoclonal antibody, interleukin-6 inhibitor or JAK inhibitor. This information is published on weekly basis in an online only format and excludes treatments administered as part of clinical trials, such as the PANORAMIC or RECOVERY studies.
In addition, a number of independent studies are analysing data on outcomes for treated and untreated patients. While NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to work with the research community to understand this observational data and understand the impact of treatments on outcomes, these studies are conducted independently of the NHS and therefore information on potential publication dates is not held.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
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.
Answered by Maggie Throup
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.
Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what data they have, if any, on the success of treatments provided by COVID Medicines Delivery Units in the UK; and whether they are looking at the data on patients unable to access a CMDU and their outcomes.
Answered by Lord Kamall
NHS England and NHS Improvement collect data on treatments for patients hospitalised due to COVID-19, hospital-onset infections and non-hospitalised patients treated through COVID Medicines Delivery Units (CMDUs). Data is collected on the numbers of treatments prescribed and administered, which shows that as of 12 June 2022, approximately 48,000 patients have been treated via CMDUs in England.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with the research community to monitor observational data on treatment outcomes. In addition, the Government’s PANORAMIC study of novel COVID-19 antivirals is expected to publish outcomes of its research in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that sufficient antiviral supply is in place for (a) pharmacies and (b) GPs to provide a test to treat scheme that enables people in vulnerable and elderly groups for whom vaccines might be less effective to get access to effective treatment quickly after testing positive for covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government has secured a supply of 4.98 million patient courses of two oral COVID-19 antiviral treatments, nirmatrelvir + ritonavir and molnupiravir. At present, those in the highest risk patient cohort who test positive for the virus can directly access antivirals and free lateral flow device testing through the integrated triage and treatment service delivered by the COVID Medicines Delivery Units (CMDUs). This patient cohort includes people at the highest risk from severe disease progression, including those who cannot take a vaccine for medical reasons and those for whom vaccines may be less effective. COVID-19 antivirals cannot currently be accessed via primary care settings. Any decisions on the longer-term deployment of COVID-19 treatments beyond the highest risk groups through CMDUs will be subject to the outcomes of the PANORAMIC study on the effectiveness of antivirals in the United Kingdom population.