AstraZeneca have announced that Evusheld will be available to patients outside the NHS effective 19th October 2022.
- AstraZeneca has taken the decision to make Evusheld (cilgavimab/tixagevimab solution for injection) available in the UK, ahead of the NICE process, concluding to ensure an option remains open for healthcare professionals to prescribe Evusheld this winter, a medicine which remains the only approved pre-exposure prophylaxis against COVID-19.
- On the 5th of September the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care informed patient groups of the Government’s decision to not make Evusheld available to patients via the NHS this winter.
- The APPG-VGP has been demanding the Government make this treatment available to ALL who need it.
- The #forgotten500k have made many appeals to make Evusheld available, as is the case in more than 30 countries around the world, a population that has a disproportionately high risk of hospitalisation from COVID-19 with many of them face their third consecutive year of shielding.
- We want them to be reassured that this APPG, with patient groups and clinicians, will continue to campaign for NHS provision of Evusheld. We will demand the Government expedite access to Evusheld for all who will benefit and fall in line with the science and the rest of the world.
“Health and protection from Covid should not be determined by how much money you earn. I am hearing from patients on the breadline telling me what they will sacrifice to get this treatment privately. Prophylactic antibody therapies like Evusheld should be made available to everyone, not just the most wealthy”
- Dr Lennard Lee Academic Medical Oncologist, University of Oxford, Clinical Champion for the APPG-VGP
Find the full press release below.