Capsules or tablets to treat patients with mild coronavirus disease at home could be ready as soon as the fall, the U.K. government has announced.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he is launching a new antivirals task force that will “supercharge” the search for at-home treatments designed to “stop COVID-19 in its tracks” and speed up recovery time.
It is hoped at least two effective treatments, either in a tablet or capsule form, will be made available for people who have tested for positive for COVID-19, or have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, later this year.
Modeled on the team responsible for the U.K.’s mass immunization program, the task force will search for “the most promising” antiviral home treatments and support their development through clinical trials to ensure they can be “rapidly rolled” out to patients as early as the autumn, the government said.
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The task force will also look at opportunities to manufacture the antiviral treatments domestically.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said the U.K. was leading the world in finding and rolling out effective treatments for COVID-19. He cited the low-dose steroid treatment Dexamethasone, which has been proven to reduce the risk of death significantly in COVID-19 patients on ventilation by as much as 35%, and arthritis drug tocilizumab, which is made by Roche ROG, 2.13%, and has been found to reduce stays in intensive care.
Announcing the new task force at a Downing Street press briefing on Tuesday, Johnson said the antiviral treatments would play an important role in returning the country to normality as England eases out of its third lockdown.