Public urged to sign up to world-first Covid-19 antiviral study

Adults over the age of 50 or with an underlying health condition who test positive for Covid-19 are being urged to sign up for a world-first Covid-19 study which is providing life-saving antivirals to thousands of people.

The government and leading charities, including Kidney Care UK, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes UK and the British Liver Trust, are calling on at least 6,000 more participants to come forward for these cutting-edge treatments through the PANORAMIC study. This is so that expert scientists can understand more about how to deploy these treatments in the NHS more widely later in the year – including who would benefit most from receiving antiviral treatments for Covid-19.

Antivirals are medicines which can be swallowed as a tablet to help treat people with Covid-19 infections to reduce the risk of hospitalisations and death. Molnupiravir, which is currently being deployed through the study, has shown to reduce this for at risk, non-hospitalised adults with mild to moderate Covid-19 by 30% – potentially saving thousands of lives once the drugs are available to the NHS.

Anyone over the age of 50 or between 18 to 49 with an underlying health condition can sign up to the study as soon as they receive a positive PCR or lateral flow test result. They need to be experiencing Covid-19 symptoms that began in the last 5 days to be eligible to enrol.

You can find more information about it on the Gov website. 

You can sign up at the PANORAMIC Trial website. 

Published: Jan 27, 2022