Australians with COVID-19 are to have access to two additional treatment options as the Commonwealth follows expert medical advice.
Announced by Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, Australia is to be supplied with 15,000 doses of the COVID-19 antibody-based therapy, Ronapreve.
Mr Hunt said Ronapreve was designed to block infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which caused COVID-19.
“Ronapreve can be administered intravenously for COVID-19 patients in a health care facility and is expected to be targeted for use in unvaccinated people who are at risk of developing severe disease,” Mr Hunt said.
“Treatment with Ronapreve has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by up to 70 per cent in patients with confirmed COVID-19,” he said.
“Use of this treatment will occur in line with the regulatory approval by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and advice from the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.”
Mr Hunt said the first supply of Ronapreve was expected to be available by the end of the month through an initial shipment of 5,000 doses and would be held in the National Medical Stockpile.
The Minister said access to 500,000 treatment courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral drug had also been secured, subject to regulatory approval by the TGA.
“This treatment which is still undergoing clinical trials is expected to help to reduce the severity or onset of illness in adults who contract, or have been exposed to, COVID-19,” he said.
“It is expected to be available over the course of 2022, subject to final clinical trials being completed by Pfizer and the necessary TGA approval process.”
Mr Hunt said the oral antiviral treatment was taken every 12 hours for five days and was designed to block an enzyme the virus needed in order to multiply early in its lifecycle.
“As with all COVID-19 treatments, both of these medications will be rigorously assessed by the TGA for safety, quality and effectiveness before it can be registered for use in Australia,” he said.
Mr Hunt said the TGA was handling all COVID-19 treatment applications with the greatest priority as part of the Department of Health’s response to the pandemic.
