Antiviral treatments for COVID-19

This page contains information on the use of antiviral treatments against COVID-19.

Section last updated: 1st February 2022

Vaccines remain the primary defence against COVID-19, but early in December 2021 the UK Government announced that it had also made available other new treatment options for COVID-19 for eligible groups of patients.

Thousands of the UK’s most vulnerable people will be among the first in the world to access cutting-edge antiviral and antibody treatments. These new treatments are used in the earliest stages of infection and often taken at home. They must be administered as soon as possible after a confirmed COVID-19 positive PCR test has been received.

A national study ‘PANORAMIC’, run by the University of Oxford, is recruiting around 10,000 UK patients at risk of serious illness from COVID-19 to have the opportunity to take the antiviral molnupiravir at home after receiving a positive PCR test.

Those at highest risk who test positive for the virus – for example, people who are immunocompromised, cancer patients or those with Down’s syndrome – can also access either molnupiravir or the novel monoclonal antibody Ronapreve outside of the study.

Molnupiravir has shown in clinical trials to reduce the risk of hospitalisation or death for at-risk, non-hospitalised adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 by 30% and Ronapreve reduced the risk by 70%.

The PANORAMIC study

The PANORAMIC study aims to allow researchers to gather further data on the potential benefits the treatments brings to vaccinated patients, and will help the NHS to develop plans for rolling out the products to further patients in 2022.

It’s open to anyone in the UK, provided they:

receive a positive PCR test;
feel unwell with symptoms of COVID-19 that started in the last five days; and
are aged 50 and over or 18 to 49 with an underlying health condition that puts them more at risk of severe COVID-19.

If eligible, people who receive a positive PCR test will be contacted by the study team or a local healthcare professional, for example their GP, to sign up to the trial. Alternatively, people can sign up themselves through the study’s website.

Taking part in the study will require participants to complete a daily diary for 28 days through the PANORAMIC website or receive a phone call from the trial team on days 7, 14 and 28 to speak about their symptoms. The first set of results from the trial are anticipated in early 2022.

Targeted deployment of the new treatments

For treatment access outside of the study, those in the highest risk group will be informed by the NHS if they have a condition that will make them eligible to receive these treatments, should they test positive for COVID-19. The eligible cohorts have been determined by an independent expert group commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and included in a clinical policy agreed by all four Chief Medical Officers in the UK.

These patients will be able to keep a PCR test at home from NHS Test and Trace to support rapid testing, so they can access the treatments as soon as possible after symptoms begin.

Eligible patients who receive a positive test will be assessed over the phone by a clinician from an NHS COVID Medicines Delivery Unit (CMDU), who will review and discuss with the patient what the most appropriate treatment would be for them.