In a late-stage study, AstraZeneca’s experimental Covid-19 antibody drug cocktail has succeeded in reducing severe disease or death in non-hospitalized patients, the British drugmaker said on Monday.
Similar to the results obtained with the Merck antiviral pills, the Astrazeneca drug, called AZD7442, has proven to reduce the risk of developing severe Covid-19 or death by 50%, in patients who had been symptomatic for seven days or less, meeting the main goal of the trial, according to CNBC.
The success of this drug cocktail and the Merck antiviral pills have been described as a huge breakthrough, considering the devastating effect the Coronavirus has had on the global space this time last year.
What they are saying
The executive vice president, biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, Mene Pangalos, said, “an early intervention with our antibody can give a significant reduction in progression to severe disease, with continued protection for more than six months.”
He further stated that the company will discuss all available data with health authorities.
The drugmaker has requested emergency approval of its drug cocktail from U.S regulators for its use as a prevention drug last week. The drug cocktail is also being developed to serve as a therapy to protect people who do not have a strong enough immune response to Covid-19 vaccines.
In addition, AstraZeneca’s therapy is the first of its kind to show positive potential as preventative medicine and as a treatment for COVID-19 following multiple trials and these therapies have been approved for emergency use in the United States for treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19.
The trial Principal investigator, Hugh Montgomery said in a statement that, “These positive results show that a convenient intramuscular dose of AZD7442 could play an important role in helping combat this devastating pandemic”.
