UK government announces Antivirals Taskforce in further effort to fight Covid-19

An Antivirals Taskforce has been launched by the UK government in a new effort to develop treatments to fight Covid-19.

Announced by prime minister Boris Johnson, the taskforce aims to identify the most promising antiviral medicines for those who have been exposed to Covid-19 and have received a positive test.

The taskforce is looking for treatments that can be taken from home to help people recover faster from Covid-19 and also reduce the disease’s transmission. Once promising medicines have been identified, the Taskforce will support their development through clinical trials in an effort to have them rolled out to patients as early as the autumn.

The government hopes the taskforce is able to help support the launch of at least two treatments this year and is looking at opportunities to manufacture the treatments in the UK.

The government has said that the taskforce will act as a “vital tool to any future increase in infections and limit the impact of new variants, especially over the flu season later this year.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The success of our vaccination programme has demonstrated what the UK can achieve when we bring together our brightest minds.

Our new Antivirals Taskforce will seek to develop innovative treatments you can take at home to stop Covid-19 in its tracks. These could provide another vital defence against any future increase in infections and save more lives.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock added that the new Antivirals Taskforce will “supercharge the search for antiviral treatments and roll them out as soon as the autumn.”

To find a chair for the Antivrials Taskforce, the government will launch a competition, with more details set to emerge in the future.

Sir Patrick Vallance, government chief scientific adviser, said: “The speed at which vaccines and therapeutics such as dexamethasone have been identified and deployed against Covid-19 has been critical to the pandemic response.

Antivirals in tablet form are another key tool for the response. They could help protect those not protected by or ineligible for vaccines. They could also be another layer of defence in the face of new variants of concern.”