AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 antibody cocktail was more than 80% successful in both preventing symptomatic disease and preventing further disease after six months, demonstrating its long-term protection.
The company said on Thursday it said the drug reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid by 83 percent in one of the trials, after six months of follow-up. The other, based on half a year’s worth of data from outpatient participants with mild to moderate illness, found the cocktail reduced the risk of severe illness or death by 88%.
The results suggest better protection than the original data even with a sharp increase in delta variation, helping the UK drugmaker to ease off on an unstable start when the first test failed to prevent it. symptomatic disease in people who are clearly exposed to the virus. The company applied for an emergency US license for the product in the context of a precaution last month.
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The UK has begun an urgent review of the drug and the company is expected to apply for a license in the European Union soon.
The results suggest that the drug could provide “my vulnerable patients with the long-term protection they urgently need”, says Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London and was the trial’s principal investigator, said in a statement. He points to evidence of long-term protection even when delta variation increases sharply.
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Data from both trials – called Provent and Tackle – add to the positive results reported earlier this year.
The Provent trial is specifically designed for people who may not respond adequately to vaccines, such as transplant patients and those undergoing chemotherapy. There were no severe cases of Covid-19 or related deaths among the people taking the drug in those trials. In the placebo group, 5 people developed severe versions of the disease and 2 died, the company said.
Tackle’s outpatient trial also focused on people at increased risk for severe illness with conditions including cancer, diabetes and obesity. About 52% of participants identified as Hispanic or Latino. The new 88% effectiveness figure applies to patients who have had symptoms for three days or less. Both trials have shown the cocktail to be generally well tolerated.
An early study in August found that the cocktail prevented symptomatic disease in people at high risk by as much as 77%, while the drug was shown to halve the risk of mild to moderate illness. worsened in the results released in October.
