Thousands more patients to access second Covid antiviral

Thousands more vulnerable people in England are now eligible to receive the UK’s second oral antiviral treatment for Covid.

Paxlovid has been added to the PANORAMIC national study, which is run by Oxford University in collaboration with GP hubs.

The PANORAMIC study makes antivirals available to a large number of patients, while collecting further data on how the antivirals work where the majority of the adult population is vaccinated. 

The study is open to adults over the age of 50 or those aged 18-49 with an underlying health condition that can increase the risk of developing severe Covid, who have received a positive Covid test result, and who are experiencing symptoms that started in the previous five days.

Paxlovid is already available directly through the NHS to those whose immune systems mean they are at higher risk of serious illness who test positive for the virus – including those who are immunocompromised, cancer patients, or those with Down’s Syndrome.

In just over three months, more than 20,000 patients have joined the PANORAMIC study to help generate data on molnupiravir, the first oral antiviral to be made available. The introduction of Paxlovid will allow a further 17,500 patients to enrol to access this treatment, which has been shown to reduce the relative risk of death or hospitalisation by 88% in clinical trials.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: ‘As we learn to live with Covid, the UK continues to lead the way in using cutting-edge treatments which have already saved the lives of many of the country’s most vulnerable patients.

‘The addition of Paxlovid to the ground-breaking PANORAMIC study is an important milestone and will help us understand who benefits most from these treatments.

‘If you’re aged 50 and over or have an underlying health condition and test positive for Covid, I urge you to participate in this study by signing up as soon as you can.’

Antivirals are treatments used to either treat those who are infected with a virus or protect exposed individuals from becoming infected. While vaccines remain the most important first line of defence, antivirals target the virus at an early stage, preventing progression to more severe, or even critical, symptoms.

Clinical trial lead Chris Butler, of Oxford University, said: ‘It is early on in the illness, when people are still being cared for in the community, that treatments for Covid could have their greatest benefit. The PANORAMIC trial is testing whether novel, promising antiviral treatments help people suffering from Covid in the community to recover faster and reduce the need for treatment in hospital.’

Photo by Mufid Majnun