Following in the footsteps of Americans Merck and Pfizer, the Anglo-Swedish laboratory AstraZeneca has announced successful advanced clinical trials against a drug to be taken at the first symptoms, based on antibodies against Covid-19 in high-risk patients.
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, Astra Zeneca said in a statement Thursday.
"No serious form of the disease or any death" linked to Covid were counted during the test, said the laboratory.
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At the start of the study, more than 75% of participants had comorbidities that put them at high risk of severe disease if infected.
A second test has meanwhile "shown an 88% reduction in the risk of severe Covid-19 or death when treated within three days of the onset of symptoms."
"Long-lasting protection"
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 lead authors of the trial, this combination of two long-acting antibodies is a source of hope for vulnerable patients.
It can provide "the lasting protection they urgently need to finally resume their daily lives," he said, stressing that the six months of protection observed during the first test were obtained "despite an increase in the variant. Delta ”.
An agreement with the United States for 700,000 doses
AstraZeneca says 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).
The United States ordered Pfizer on November 18 for 10 million treatments of its anti-Covid pill.
The Swedish-British group announced in 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.
