‘Patients benefiting from ground-breaking drugs’

Treatments previously only available to people who were hospitalised with the virus are now being offered to eligible patients in the community, it has been confirmed.

Mr Swann’s department says that in the last four weeks over 350 patients across Northern Ireland have received either the Neutralising Monoclonal Antibody treatment (nMABs) Sotrovimab, at a Trust outpatient covid treatment service, or the oral antiviral medicine Molnupiravir, to take at home.

The minister said: “It’s very encouraging to hear that patients in Northern Ireland are now benefiting from these ground-breaking drugs which have been approved by the Medicines Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

“Monoclonal antibodies and antivirals have been used by the health service since September of last year to treat patients who are hospitalised with severe COVID-19, and have been shown to improve survival and recovery time.”

He continued: “The roll-out of these treatments to patients at highest risk in the community is a significant milestone in our battle against COVID-19 and will provide an additional layer of support for the most vulnerable in society.”

Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Michael McBride said: “The vaccination programme remains our first line of defence against COVID-19 but these treatments have an important role in lowering the risk of severe illness and death and will also reduce the number of people who need to be admitted to hospital, thus helping to ease pressures on the health service over the challenging winter months.”

And the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Cathy Harrison, said: “These effective new treatments have been rolled out across Northern Ireland at pace and I want to commend clinical teams in our HSC Trusts who have worked exceptionally hard to identify and deliver treatment to patients at a very challenging time for the entire health service.

“With additional drugs due to become available shortly, following approval from the MHRA, we are maximising our ability to protect vulnerable patients and prevent them from serious illness.”

People who are eligible for these COVID-19 treatments are prioritised for testing.