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Interview with Chris Kenny on 11 November 2021 on the new antiviral pill to tackle COVID-19

Read the transcript of Minister Gillespie's interview with Chris Kenny on 11 November 2021 on the new antiviral pill to tackle COVID-19.

The Hon Dr David Gillespie MP
Former Minister for Regional Health

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CHRIS KENNY:

Let's catch up now with David Gillespie who's the Regional Health Minister joining us here in Sydney. Good to talk to you, David.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Great to be back, Chris.

CHRIS KENNY:

Pretty exciting news about this new antiviral pill to tackle COVID-19. Australia's got an order in for a few hundred thousand of these. It's going to be particularly significant, the suggestion is, in regional areas where people might have greater distances to hospitals.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Yeah, look it is important to have both oral and intravenous treatments. There's various drugs that have been approved, new ones that have been developed overseas, and this latest, Molnupiravir, is actually a treatment that reduces the chance of you getting sick enough to go to hospital by over 50 per cent. So that's really going to take a lot of pressure off any hospital but particularly regional hospitals who have got [audio skip] capacity but when you have a major outbreak like we've seen before mass vaccination, it's really significant.

So, we are looking at many of these new drugs and this is now potentially available in Australia, assuming it gets through the rest of the registration process.

CHRIS KENNY:

Are we expecting that these would be available only by prescription or could people have some of these, you know, particularly in remote areas in case they do get infected?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

No, I think it will be on prescription. In fact, I'm sure it'll be on prescription. The issue is we have got 300,000 doses lined up assuming registration goes ahead, and that will have to be held in key places to distribute where needed, when needed as soon as possible. But the main thing is what I've learnt from speaking to some of the regional health districts is one in particular yesterday, they've had an outbreak of 266 cases, but only two people are sick enough to end up in hospital. So the vaccines are working, they modify the disease. There will be cases. All these states that are slow catching up on the vaccination, once they've got above that 80 per cent, they should obviously keep vaccinating. But you won't see the numbers that you've seen in earlier outbreaks when we had low vaccination rates.

 

CHRIS KENNY:

Then that raises the question of the role for these treatments. If the vaccination is doing that job of keeping the disease mild, when would you use the treatment? Immediately, someone's infected, even though they're vaccinated? Or is this perhaps something that we specially put aside for those who are unvaccinated?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Well, both. If you're- you can still get the disease, but it's a modified illness when you're vaccinated. They're not 100 per cent watertight, but they give your immune system the memory to make the antibodies to fight the illness and that's what modifies it. But some of them break through and still get sick. You can treat them. People who are unvaccinated and end up really symptomatic, obviously you get in early and you can reduce the chance of them ending up in hospital. So it'll be across the board. It'll be symptomatic people, obviously. And hopefully, if really high vaccination rates like we've got in New South Wales and the ACT and Victoria happen in South Australia, WA and Queensland, we won't see the hospitals swamped. But we've got a great hospital system, we've got good vaccines and now we've got both oral treatment and intravenous treatment to treat it if you do get sick.

CHRIS KENNY:

And how far off before we're actually having this being administered in this country?

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Well, it's been licenced in the UK. It is still going through assessment here and I can't give you an exact time, but obviously the pressure to have something available is there. I think the TGA is a very thorough-

CHRIS KENNY:

[Talks over] What sort of timeframe are we look at, though, roughly? Certainly before next winter, which would be critical.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

Yes. Well, and truly, by then, I'm thinking early in the new year. But look, I don't want to second guess the TGA. They have their processes and analysis of the data, which is- there's more coming through all the time. It will be available in the future if it passes all the regulatory hurdles that we demand in Australia to make sure that drugs are one, are very effective and two, they're safe to use.

CHRIS KENNY:

Minister, thanks for joining us.

MINISTER GILLESPIE:

My pleasure.

CHRIS KENNY:

Dr David Gillespie there. The Minister for Regional Health.

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