Australia has secured 300,000 courses of molnupiravir, an antiviral capsule to treat Covid-19 that could be in use by early 2022.
The Morrison government has struck a supply agreement with MSD to provide the oral treatment if it is approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Molnupiravir has been shown to prevent hospitalisation, serious illness and death in Covid patients, although it is still in late-stage clinical trials.
It is one of a number of treatments that can make the virus less severe, along with sotrovimab and remdesivir, which are already in use. Health authorities stress vaccination is still the most effective tool for preventing severe illness.
Molnupiravir is a capsule that is taken twice a day for five days by adult patients with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 symptoms and does not need to be refrigerated, allowing it to be used in the community including rural areas.
Scott Morrison said “vaccines and new treatments like this will boost our national plan to safely reopen Australia and keep Australia safely open”.
“Throughout this pandemic we’ve been closely watching developments for Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and molnupiravir will be ready to go in Australia should it be approved by the TGA,” he said in a statement.
The health minister, Greg Hunt, said “all Covid-19 treatment assessment processes are being treated with the greatest priority as part of the government’s response to the pandemic”.
“Vaccination remains the most important and safest way for Australians to protect themselves and their loved ones from Covid-19 – and almost 80% of Australians aged 16 and over have now had their first dose.”
On Monday, the Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said there was “really good early evidence” that molnupiravir “can reduce your risk of severe illness by half”, referring to the results of its phase three trials.
“That is a really important intervention that could be part of a new class of drugs, antiviral drugs, that really change the face [of illness], in the same way that antiviral drugs for influenza mean that people get less severe illness,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“Absolutely, I would love to see that go through a TGA assessment and approval process. It is not there yet.”
Sutton said although “antivirals are great if you are developing illness regardless, but getting vaccinated will be 10, 20, 50 times more powerful an intervention in preventing severe illness than any antiviral that’s currently available”.
On Monday, Hunt announced Australia had purchased an extra 15,000 doses of sotrovimab, an intravenous antibody treatment shown to reduce hospitalisation or death by 79% in adults with mild to moderate Covid-19.
Hunt described taking molnupiravir orally as a “much easier means of” delivering treatments than intravenous infusion.
