Evusheld not ordered yet by the UK government

[vivdunstan]

The Guardian has run a story today about this, quoting the Astra Zeneca boss, saying that

“The UK is probably one of the rare developed countries in the world that has not ordered Evusheld. It’s a sad situation, quite frankly, because people who are immune-compromised are really suffering from the Covid crisis"

Evusheld is a preventative antibody treatment, developed for immunosuppressed people, to try to stop them developing Covid, or developing so severely.

For full details see theguardian.com/business/20...

I know that there has been interest in this among the Vasculitis UK members.

[Lone-wolf]

Hi Viv, It was much the same with Shingdrix, the non live shingles vaccine. Both the USA and Europe were using it long before the UK passed it for general usage for immunosuppressed patients. So I suspect that NICE will pass it for use in the UK before long.

[vivdunstan Volunteer in reply to Lone-wolf]

Evusheld has already been approved for the immunosuppressed in the UK, by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in March. I’m not sure if NICE need to do any more than that, but it’s possible the JCVI are still pondering slowly. But yes, it’s approved, so there shouldn’t be any good reason why it can’t be bought. Until it’s ordered from the makers rollout will be extra delayed.

[Mooka]

I asked my consultant about this and she said that this and some others are not available to us yet. She said she favours the one trialled at Addenbrookes which is a nose spray you only have to use when you are going to be mixing with others. It would be good to know the reason it’s not available. I suspect it’s a cost thing.

[Main1234]

Wonder if it’s available on a private prescription, does anyone know ?