Soon, a single intramuscular dose of AZD7442, the AstraZeneca antibody combo can help in treating and preventing covid. Here’s all you need to know about it.
What is the AstraZeneca antibody combo?
AZD7442 is AstraZeneca’s new antibody combination. The concoction is a combination of two long-acting antibodies (LAABs). The UK-based pharma giant created one of the major Covid-19 vaccines along with the University of Oxford. The firm licensed covid neutralizing antibodies from Vanderbilt University in June 2020. It also had an advanced pair of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for clinical development.
The new AstraZeneca antibody combo is a combination of two LAABs- tixagevimab and cilgavimab. The two LAABs, discovered by Vanderbilt University on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, “they were optimized by AstraZeneca’s technology, which more than triples the durability of its action compared to conventional antibodies,” stated AstraZeneca.
Is AZD7442 a game-changer?
The third phase of AZD7442 COVID-19 PROVENT prevention and TACKLE outpatient trials revealed how well the combo can perform. Trials using a single 300mg intramuscular dose in place of the placebo showed 83 percent efficiency. Similarly, a single 600mg intramuscular dose reduced the risk by 88 percent. Additionally, over 75 percent and 90 percent of the participants had comorbidities respectively, increasing their risk. Moreover, participants did not contract covid after six months.
Experts believe that about two percent of the global population is at a higher risk of inadequate shots. It includes people suffering from cancers, people on dialysis, undergoing chemotherapy, or taking immunosuppressive drugs. AstraZeneca‘s PROVENT is the first trial that is evaluating monoclonal antibodies for pre-exposure covid therapy. Since the target includes several high-risk and immunocompromised people, the success of the therapy can be a game-changer.
