Saturday 19 November 2022 10:35 PM New setback for the Covid-vulnerable as NHS axes four more lifeline drugs trends now
Four Covid drugs which have kept thousands of vulnerable Britons out of hospital were quietly removed last week, after the NHS spending watchdog pulled funding for them.
While the Covid vaccines and boosters provide strong protection against serious illness for most of the population, about 500,000 people suffer with conditions that mean their bodies do not respond to the jabs, leaving them at serious risk from the virus.
Since last year, these patients – who primarily have blood cancers such as leukaemia, kidney disease or have had an organ transplant – have been able to access five anti-Covid drugs which prevent them from falling seriously ill and ending up in hospital. But on Wednesday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said it will withdraw four of them from NHS use as they are no longer deemed cost-effective.
Worryingly, it will leave thousands of kidney disease sufferers with no available treatment to prevent them from being hospitalised with Covid. The only remaining medication, Paxlovid, cannot be used by these patients due to its severe side effects.
Four Covid drugs which have kept thousands of vulnerable Britons out of hospital were quietly removed last week, after the NHS spending watchdog pulled funding for them
‘It’s disappointing, surprising and unfair,’ says Fiona Loud, policy director for the charity Kidney Care UK. ‘These treatments have been an important safety net for people with kidney disease, who remain among the most vulnerable to Covid and who have the least protection from the vaccines.’
The news has also renewed calls for the Government to fund the medication Evusheld, a biannual injection created by AstraZeneca, the British firm behind one of the first Covid vaccines, which is proven to stop vulnerable patients from catching the virus in the first place. However, as reported by this newspaper, though Evusheld was approved by UK health regulators in March, Ministers claim it is still unclear whether the drug is effective against the latest Omicron variant. The drug is already in use in 32 other countries, including the US, France and Israel. Currently, Evusheld is only available privately in the UK, costing upwards of £1,000 a dose.
‘The delay in providing Evusheld, coupled with this proposal to remove many treatment drugs, leaves vulnerable kidney patients with no prospect of protection or treatment, unless they are willing to pay thousands of pounds out of their own pocket,’ says
