New Antibody Drug Combination for COVID-19 Developed

A new drug which is a combination of the antibodies, imdevimab and casirivimab may be more effective in treating severe cases of COVID-19 patients.

Antibody treatment may a better option for severely affected COVID-19 patients, report experts panel.

The World Health Organization’s Guideline Development Group panel of international experts, recommendations in the British Journal of Medicine, BMJ , say a treatment that contains antibodies such as imdevimab, casirivimab, could probably do good for two specific categories of COVID-19 patients. Patients who might be at the risk of hospitalization would be the first category and those who are in critical illness because of COVID-19 and without having developed any reasonable number of antibodies against the virus would be the second category.

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The first recommendation is for the high-risk category of people who are not vaccinated, immune suppressed, and older COVID-19 patients. For these patients, the combination of imdevimab and casirivimab can reduce the duration of the symptoms and also eliminate the risks of hospitalization.

The second recommendation of the imdevimab and casirivimab drug-combo is to reduce the risks of deaths in patients who are critically ill and avoid the need for mechanical ventilation in severely ill patients.

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The antibody treatment is not meant for any other cases except the above two mentioned category.

The ability of the virus to infect the cells is neutralized with the combination of the two antibodies, casirivimab and indevimab that bind together with the spike protein found in the SARS-CoV- 2.

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The experts acknowledge that the cost of the treatment and the availability of the resources in the varied hospitals may be a limiting factor for the lower and middle-class segment to be benefited. For instance, to identify the patients who are seriously ill, special tests must be conducted, and intravenous treatment procedures are to be followed using appropriate equipment.

Careful monitoring of the patients during the treatment to keep allergic reactions at bay becomes a crucial need too. When the new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 emerge, then this combination of casirivimab and indevimab may not have the complete effect as it has now.

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However, currently, as there are noteworthy benefits for the COVID-19 patients, the experts say, “the recommendations should provide a stimulus to engage all possible mechanisms to improve global access to the intervention and associated testing.”

Source-Medindia