The drug regulatory agency in the United Kingdom (MHRA, its acronym in English) on Thursday approved a new treatment against Covid-19 that could reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from the disease by up to 79%, according to clinical trials.
Sotrovimab, or Xevudy, is a monoclonal antibody drug produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, used to treat patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 and who are at increased risk of developing severe disease, including people aged 60 years or more, diabetics, people with heart disease and obese.
The drugmakers announced that preclinical data showed the drug “retains activity against key mutations in the new omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2.”
Sotrovimab is given intravenously over 30 minutes and has been approved for people aged 12 years and over. In phase three of the clinical trials, used within the first five days of symptom onset, the drug reduced the rate of hospitalization and death among a high-risk patient population from 6% to 1%, with a proportional reduction of 79%, mainly generated by reducing the need for hospitalization. There were few deaths in the study: two in the placebo group and one in the drug group.
The drug works by binding to the coronavirus spike protein. This prevents the virus from entering human cells to replicate in the body.
“The product was designed to bind to a highly conserved portion of the spike protein, which makes it less susceptible to mutations”, explains pharmaceutical physician Penny Ward, a researcher at King’s College London.
“Initial information demonstrates broad activity against most variants. As some of these share some (but not all) mutations seen in the omicron variant, it is reasonable to predict that it should retain antiviral effect against this strain as well,” Ward told the Science Media Center , noting that this has yet to be demonstrated with tests in vitro.
The UK government has ordered 100,000 doses of the drug. This is the second MHRA-approved monoclonal antibody treatment after Ronapreve.
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