Saturday 2 July 2022 11:21 PM Will Covid drug Evusheld be offered to vulnerable Britons who don't respond to ... trends now
Health chiefs are poised to roll out a life-saving Covid drug designed to protect vulnerable patients who don't respond to the vaccine, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Government experts have been assessing the medication and Ministers are now considering advice from doctors on 'the most appropriate option for the NHS'.
Evusheld, developed by AstraZeneca, was approved by drug regulators in March after a study showed it reduced the chances of Covid infections by 80 per cent.
The drug, which works by attaching itself to and inhibiting the Covid virus's ability to bind with healthy cells and infect the body, can also reduce hospitalisations and deaths by 50 per cent.
Based on these impressive results, 28 countries, including France, America and Israel, have snapped up millions of doses since January – but up to now, the Government has refused to cover the £800-a-dose cost.
Health chiefs are poised to roll out a life-saving Covid drug designed to protect vulnerable patients who don't respond to the vaccine. The move will come too late for some, including the devastated family of cancer patient Michael Warren, who died of Covid in June - a few months after walking daughter Chelsea (pictured with him) down the aisle
Charities and patient groups, backed by this newspaper, have been calling for the rollout of Evusheld – and in the clearest indication that there is hope is sight a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'We have been assessing Evusheld, and asking clinicians to advise on the most appropriate option for the NHS in line with all available data.
'Ministers are considering the advice which has been presented to them.'
Evusheld is given via an intravenous infusion once every six months, and could provide a lifeline for the estimated 500,000 Britons who are still at risk from the virus, despite having been jabbed – in some cases, up to five times.
These are primarily blood cancer and transplant patients
