Health and Aged Care News

Australian Government secures two COVID-19 treatments

Eliza Sayon Oct 19, 2021

2 min read

In support of the National Plan to Transition Australia’s COVID-19 response, the Australian Government has secured access to two additional COVID-19 treatments after following expert medical advice.

Under new management with Roche Products Pty Ltd, the country will be given 15,000 doses of the COVID-19 antibody-based therapy Ronapreve. The initial shipment of 5,000 doses is expected to be available by the end of this month and will be held in the National Medical Stockpile.

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.

Roche Products’s Ronapreve is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies, designed to block the infectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The two monoclonal antibodies bind to two different sites of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and flag the virus as foreign, to set off the body’s immune response.

Aside from this, the Australian Government has also secured access to 500,000 treatment courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral drug. This will be used in combination with the protease inhibitor drug ritonavir, subject to regulatory approval by the TGA.

Although this treatment is still undergoing clinical trials, is expected to help to reduce the severity or onset of illness in infected adults. It is expected to be available by 2022, subject to final clinical trials being completed by Pfizer and the necessary TGA approval process.

Pfizer’s oral antiviral treatment is taken every 12 hours for five days and is designed to block an enzyme the virus needs in order to multiply early in its lifecycle.

On 1 October 2021, the TGA granted provisional determination to Pfizer Australia in relation to this treatment. This allows Pfizer to undergo a fast track approval process once the clinical trials are complete.

While vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19, the Australian Government continues work to ensure that Australians have early access to safe and effective treatments as they are made available.

Both COVID-19 treatments will be rigorously assessed by the TGA for safety, quality and effectiveness before they can be registered for use in the country.

The Australian Government has also secured an advanced purchase agreement for 300,000 courses of the promising oral COVID-19 treatment Molnupiravir for supply in 2022.

These purchase agreements have been supported by the Science and Industry Technical Advisory Group.

Further review of the clinical guidelines for use of these treatments in Australia will be undertaken by the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.

Source: Department of Health Media Release

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.