06/16/2021 7:46 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 06/16/2021 7:46 AM
As the vaccination campaign advances around the world and different countries begin to lift restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic,
a new antibody treatment was
discovered that reduces the risk of death of patients with severe covid.
It is a combination of antibodies developed by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron.
The treatment achieved positive results in a large clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom.
The test also found that this therapy decreases at the same time the chances that these coronavirus patients in serious condition will need a ventilator, as well as the length of their hospital stay.
The trial, carried out between September 18, 2020 and May 22, with
9,785 hospitalized people affected with the virus
, revealed that with the combination of (the antibodies called casirivimab and imdevimab, known as) REGEN-COV, in addition to routine medical care, the fatal risk was reduced by a fifth among patients admitted with coronavirus who had not generated antibodies to the virus themselves.
The researchers also observed that this drug
did not cause any effect in those who did generate antibodies.
To date, these types of treatments have only worked in the mildest cases of the disease.
"What we have found among these patients who were seronegative, who had not generated antibodies by themselves, is that if you gave them this combination of two antibodies by intravenous infusion, mortality was reduced by a fifth," remarked Martin Landray, professor. of Medicine and Epidemiology from the University of Oxford and investigator in this trial.
He added that "instead of 30% dying,
24% died.
Put differently, for every 100 patients who received the intravenous infusion, we would save six lives."
"We take a group of people, they are sick, they are hospitalized, they have covid-19, they do not generate antibodies by themselves; this will reduce their chances of dying, shorten their hospital stay and reduce the chances of needing a ventilator," he explained.
Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of the public health body NHS England commented that "these encouraging results" suggest "a new treatment option to help save the lives of some hospitalized patients with covid-19".
EFE source
AFG
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