An international study published in the medical journal ‘The Lancet Respiratory Medicine’ identify a new strategy further reduce the mortality of people hospitalized for covid-19. It is regarding adding the monoclonal antibody tixagevimab/cilgavimab al standard treatment with remdesivir y dexamethasone that is already administered in hospitals.
It is phase 3 clinical trial, carried out on hospitalized patients with different severity but who did not require ICU, has shown that this strategy is segura and even though does not shorten the recovery period from the patients, yes, it reduces mortality by 30%, especially in the most severe patients.
The head of the Infectious Diseases Service of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital (Can Ruti, in Badalona) and main researcher at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, Roger Paredes, He is one of the first three authors of this work. The trial evaluated the potential of a single intravenous dose of this antibody in people hospitalized but not in the ICU, who were also given other drugs already approved and used routinely, such as remdesivir or dexamethasone. From all this, it was evaluated resilience and the mortality of the people who participated in the clinical trial.
Although the results did not show a significant improvement in recovery rates, this new strategy did lead to a clinically relevant 30% reduction in mortality, especially in more severe patients who required higher oxygen concentrations or non-invasive mechanical ventilation.
Furthermore, unlike previous studies with other monoclonal antibodies that lost efficacy once morest omicron, the currently predominant variant, the combination of tixagevimab/cilgavimab would maintain its ability to block this variant of the virus in the doses administered.
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The recently completed study was carried out in regarding 80 centers around the world and, in Spain, it had the participation of 150 people admitted to a conventional plant and in semi-critical units: 75 in the Germans Trias Hospital and another 75 in other hospitals in the country. Having included a large number of patients from all over the world is one of the strengths of the trial, suggesting that the results would be widely generalizable to no differences in efficacy or safety according to comorbidity, immunocompromised status, or vaccination status of patients.
“All this shows us that some monoclonal antibodies, added to the usual treatment with remdesivir and dexamethasone, might contribute to reducing mortality from covid-19, especially the most severe patients. From the scientific community we are advancing towards the use of combination antiviral treatments with the aim of stopping the virus by maximum number of routes possible”, Summarizes Walls. “This study highlights the need to continue working to achieve more rescue interventions for patients hospitalized with covid-19″, he concludes.
