Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced successful advanced clinical trials for an antibody-based drug against the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in high-risk patients.
A press release from the Astra Zeneca Group indicates in this regard that “the Anglo-Swedish laboratory is thus following in the footsteps of the Americans Merck and Pfizer, who had respectively proclaimed in October and early November that they had succeeded in developing drugs to avoid severe forms of the disease and to be taken at the first symptoms ”.
The six-month follow-up of a first trial consisting of injecting a 300 mg dose of the drug AZD7442 showed an 83% reduction in the risk of developing a symptomatic form of Covid, specifies the Group, noting that no serious form of the disease nor any Covid-related deaths were recorded during the trial.
And to point out that at the start of the study, more than 75% of the participants had comorbidities exposing them to a high risk of severe form of the disease in the event of infection, specifying that a second test showed an 88% reduction in the risk of severe Covid-19 or death when treated within three days of symptom onset.
In this trial, patients with “mild to moderate” Covid-19 for three days or less were injected with a dose of 600 mg of the drug and the vast majority of participants were at high risk of developing a severe form of the disease.
According to Hugh Montgomery, professor of critical care medicine at University College London and one of the principal authors of the trial, quoted in the press release, “This combination of two long-acting antibodies is a source of hope for vulnerable patients ”.
“It can provide the long-lasting protection they urgently need to finally get back to their daily lives,” he said, noting that “the six months of protection seen in the first try was achieved despite an increase in Delta variant ”.
AstraZeneca also notes that the full results of these two trials will be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed medical journal. The laboratory has already filed an authorization request for the use of the drug in the treatment of Covid-19 with the American Medicines Authority (FDA).
As a reminder, the group announced last March an agreement with the United States to provide the country this year with up to 700,000 doses of this antibody treatment for a total amount of agreements signed with the United States for 726 million. of dollars. They are antivirals, which work by reducing a virus’s ability to replicate, thereby slowing down the disease.
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