AstraZeneca antibody cocktail succeeds in advanced stage study to treat COVID-19

Oct. 11 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) investigational drug COVID-19 helped reduce the risk of serious illness or death in an advanced study, the British drugmaker said on Monday, a boost to its efforts to develop coronavirus drugs beyond vaccines.

The drug, a cocktail of two antibodies called AZD7442, reduced the risk of severe COVID-19 or death by 50% in outpatients who had symptoms for seven days or less, achieving the primary goal of the study .

AstraZeneca’s therapy, given by injection, is the first of its kind to show promise both as a preventative medicine and as a treatment for COVID-19 following multiple trials. It is designed to protect people who do not have a strong enough immune response to vaccines.

“These positive results show that a practical intramuscular dose of AZD7442 could play an important role in the fight against this devastating pandemic,” Hugh Montgomery, principal investigator of the trial, said in a statement.

Similar therapies made with a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies are in development by Regeneron (REGN.O), Eli Lilly (LLY.N) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) with its partner Vir (VIR.O). These therapies are approved for emergency use in the United States for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19.

AstraZeneca, whose COVID-19 vaccine has been widely used around the world, last week asked U.S. regulators to grant emergency use authorization for AZD7442 as a preventative therapy.

AstraZeneca is submitting data from various AZD7442 studies to global health regulators, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

“We will continue discussions with regulators around this new data,” she said of the results of Monday’s trial.

The trial took place in 13 countries and involved more than 900 adult participants, half receiving AZD7442 and the rest receiving placebo. Full trial results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, AstraZeneca said.

AZD7442 contains lab-made antibodies that are designed to stay in the body for months to contain the virus if infected. A vaccine, on the other hand, relies on an intact immune system to develop targeted antibodies and anti-infective cells.

“Early intervention with our antibody can dramatically reduce progression to serious disease, with continued protection for more than six months,” said Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of AstraZeneca.

While Monday’s results cover the use of AZD7442 in out-of-hospital patients, a separate trial is also studying its use as a treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Other antibody cocktail treatments for COVID-19 have shown varying degrees of success.

Regeneron therapy has shown 72% protection against symptomatic infection in the first week, and 93% thereafter. GSK-Vir showed a 79% reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death from any cause, while Lilly’s therapy showed a 70% reduction in viral load on the seventh day compared to a placebo.

Report by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Kirsten Donovan

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