Curative and preventive treatments are available, including Sotrovimab, administered by injection, which France will receive on Friday or the Pfizer pill, both effective once morest Omicron
Faced with Covid-19, in addition to vaccination, France is enriching its therapeutic arsenal, with the arrival on Friday of a new monoclonal antibody, Sotrovimab, and at the end of January the planned delivery of an antiviral, Paxlovid. “Effective treatments exist,” said an adviser to the Ministry of Health on Thursday, while recalling that “vaccination remains our main weapon”.
For some very old, immunocompromised or very high-risk people, curative and preventive treatments are indeed available alongside vaccination, which may not be effective enough for them. “Despite vaccination, people at risk must consult very quickly in the event of Covid”, therefore underlined the ministry.
On Friday, France will notably receive the first 6,000 doses curative treatment with monoclonal antibodies, Sotrovimab (Vir Biotechnology/GSK). In total, France has ordered 20,000. Effective once morest Omicron, it has the disadvantage of being administered by intravenous injection in the hospital or via hospitalization at home within 5 days of the appearance of the first symptoms.
Treatments reserved for certain patients
Another curative treatment soon available: the Paxlovid pill, from Pfizer. Administered orally at the rate of three tablets per day for 5 days, this treatment is effective once morest Omicron and reduces the risk of being hospitalized or dying from Covid by 89%. One of the molecules contained in Paxlovid can nevertheless interact with other treatments taken by certain patients, who will therefore not be eligible for it.
“We have reserved 500,000 doses in 2022 and the first deliveries – a few thousand doses – are expected in a week”, indicates Olivier Véran’s entourage.
Its deployment will be done in particular via a prescription by general practitioners, in all pharmacies. An opinion from the High Health Authority on this treatment is expected on Friday morning. Pfizer has announced an investment of more than 500 million euros to produce the drug’s raw material in France in the summer of 2022.
For people who lack antibodies, preventive treatments also exist. If Ronapreve (developed by Regeneron with the Roche laboratory), effective once morest the Delta variant, is no longer effective once morest Omicron, AstraZeneca’s Evusheld has been available in France since mid-December.
“We have reserved 50,000 doses, we have more than 6,500 patients treated at the moment”, we underline at the ministry. This treatment has two advantages: “it remains effective once morest Omicron and only requires one injection every six months”.
