Matt Hancock – 2021 Comments on the Antivirals Taskforce

The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 20 April 2021.

The UK is leading the world in finding and rolling out effective treatments for COVID-19, having identified dexamethasone, which has saved over a million lives worldwide, and tocilizumab.

In combination with our fantastic vaccination programme, medicines are a vital weapon to protect our loved ones from this terrible virus.

Modelled on the success of the vaccines and therapeutics taskforces, which have played a crucial part in our response to the pandemic, we are now bringing together a new team that will supercharge the search for antiviral treatments and roll them out as soon as the autumn.

I am committed to boosting the UK’s position as a life science superpower and this new taskforce will help us beat COVID-19 and build back better.