Ministers announced that No 10 has reached deals to purchase hundreds of thousands of antiviral treatment for coronavirus from two companies. They hope the treatments will be approved in time for the winter.
A single deal includes 480,000 courses of Molnupiravir. The capsules can be taken twice daily as a capsule. Treatments such as the dexamethasone steroid have been administered via IV injections or injections in the past.
The drug, which is manufactured by Merck and known as MSD in the US, was shown to reduce the death or hospitalization rate by half in trials.
The other treatment is PF-07321332/ritonavir, a combination of another oral antiviral treatment used in combination with ritonavir, a drug usually used to treat HIV/Aids. The announcement stated that the UK has signed a deal with Pfizer to purchase 250,000 courses.
Neither treatment would be used in patients before approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, with trials for PF-07321332/ritonavir still taking place. Molnupiravir will be available in mid-November. The Pfizer antivirals are expected to arrive in late January.
Ministers and health advisors stated that the agreements made by the governments antivirals team could help reduce the number of Covid cases in the winter. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said they would be part of an arsenal of life-saving measures to combat the virus.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam from England, the deputy chief medical officer, stated that antivirals are especially important in protecting people who might not have the same immune response to vaccines as the majority.
He said: "We will now work fast to ensure that the right cohorts receive these treatments as quickly as possible, should the MHRA approve them."
Officials expect that the majority of antivirals will be used for the treatment of the elderly and immunocompromised, who are more likely to be admitted with severe diseases. These drugs are different in their effectiveness and may be combined in the future. They are expected to last through the winter.
Antivirals can be used to treat or prevent infection. The health department stated that dexamethasone was the first antiviral drug used to combat Covid. It has saved over 22,000 lives in the UK, and more than a million globally.
The taskforce had one goal: to find an antiviral medication that patients could take at home before winter.
