Astrazeneca in talks over Covid drug for vulnerable UK patients

ASTRAZENECA is in talks with health officials to offer 500,000 immunocompromised patients in the UK a Covid treatment to boost their defences as they cannot build enough protection using vaccines.

Health officials told The Daily Telegraph they are monitoring tests closely to determine whether the treatment is still effective against omicron and will then make a decision.

The company is presenting the Government with “real world evidence” of the drug Evusheld after the UK became one of the few developed countries not to order the antibody treat- ment for the vulnerable.

Astrazeneca is attempting to persuade the Government to procure the drug amid fears that Britain’s estimated 500,000 immunocompromised have been deserted and forced to shield by the decision to hold off purchases.

Vaccines fail to give many patients with weaker immune systems enough protection or some people may not be recommended a jab. Evusheld boosts their defences to much higher levels.

Iskra Reic, Astrazeneca’s executive vice-president of its vaccines and immune therapies unit, said: “We are in discussions with the task force and different bodies within the UK.”

She said the company is using “good data” from hundreds of thousands of patients on the treatment in early adopters, such as the US and France, in an attempt to persuade UK health officials.

She said: “There is lots of good data coming from the real world evidence on top of the phase three clinical trials so we are providing those data to the UK Government.” In clinical trials, Evusheld reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid by 83pc after six months. Astrazeneca recently announced it retained its neutralisation activity against the omicron variant.

Evusheld is in use in the US and much of Europe. The medicine has been approved by UK regulators but not procured for usage by health officials.

A government spokesman said: “Those most at-risk from Covid are eligible to receive one of our life-saving antivirals if they catch the virus, and the UK has procured more doses per head than any other country in Europe.

“The MHRA’S market authorisation of Evusheld was based on the product’s clinical effectiveness against the delta variant, and by the time of its authorisation, omicron had emerged as the dominant variant. The UK Health Security Agency has been carrying out further testing on Evusheld’s effectiveness against omicron. We will monitor these results, which will inform decisions on next steps including procurement.”