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Prescription Drugs: Coronavirus

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN HL7827, tabled on 7 April 2022

To ask Her Majesty's Government what legislation requires Public Health England to provide antiviral treatments for COVID-19 to only those people with particular health conditions.

Answered on

20 April 2022

The pharmaceutical companies producing antivirals have not made these treatments commercially available to the private health care sector in the United Kingdom. These products have been procured by the Department and are only available through the National Health Service.

The Department has agreed contracts with MSD and Pfizer to ensure that the UK has sufficient antiviral medication to treat those who are likely to benefit. There is no legislation which sets out the patient cohorts to receive antiviral treatments for COVID-19. Clinically eligible cohorts have been determined by an independent expert group commissioned by the Department and included in a clinical policy agreed by the UK Chief Medical Officers.