Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A new antibody therapy from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, appears to have reduced the risk of COVID-19 symptoms by 77% in a late-stage trial.
The results of this study put AstraZeneca to offer protective antibody therapy drugs to people who cannot be vaccinated because their bodies have a poor response to vaccines.
Reported from Reuters, AstraZeneca said 75% of participants in the trial for the therapy, namely two types of antibodies discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, had chronic conditions including some with a lower immune response to vaccination.
A similar therapy created with a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies that mimic natural immune system proteins is being developed by Regeneron, Eli Lilly, and GlaxoSmithKline with partner Vir.
But AstraZeneca was the first to publish Covid prevention data from antibody trials. Even so, the good news about therapy has some obstacles, as stated in a separate AstraZeneca statement on Friday (20/8/2021).
It said a trial of a treatment for the rare neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), developed by AstraZeneca’s newly acquired Alexion, had been discontinued prematurely due to lack of efficacy.
AstraZeneca executive Mene Pangalos said the results of the therapy trial were taken three months after the antibodies were injected and investigators would follow up for 15 months in the hope this could serve as a shield for a year.
Pangalos signaled that the prospect of a new Covid-19 product as an AstraZeneca drug could also enhance the strategic value of the existing Vaxzevria vaccine, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
“No other company has delivered two molecules against SARS-CoV2. This definitely helps us in positioning us in terms of Covid-19,” Pangalos told Reuters.
Another leading AstraZeneca executive, Ruud Dobber, said last July that different strategic options were being explored for AstraZeneca’s vaccine operations, which faced a series of challenges.
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