Covid-19: UK stockpiles two unapproved antiviral drugs for treatment at home

The UK has started stockpiling two antiviral drugs as part of a plan to give people who are staying at home with covid-19 a treatment to reduce symptoms and the spread of the virus.

The government has purchased 480 000 courses of molnupiravir (made by Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD)) and 250 000 courses of the combination of PF-07321332 and ritonavir (Pfizer), neither of which have been approved by the UK’s regulator of medicines.

In its announcement the Department of Health and Social Care for England said that if the treatments were approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency they will be rolled out to people most at risk of covid-19, with the aim of reducing symptom severity and “easing pressure on the NHS over winter.”

The drugs were selected by the Antivirals Taskforce, which was formed in April with …