“The two treatments, which are designed to work by binding to the virus’s skeletal protein to neutralize its ability to infect cells, were among the first drugs developed early in the pandemic,” she said.
She added, “But the virus has since evolved, and increasing evidence from laboratory tests indicates that the efficacy of the treatments “sutrovimab” and “cacerifimab-imdivimab” is limited in the face of the latest mutations of the virus.”
As a result, “the US health regulator also excluded them”.
And the World Health Organization experts said yesterday, Thursday, that they strongly advised not to use them to treat people with “Covid 19”, in a retreat from previous conditional recommendations, as part of a set of new recommendations published by the British Medical Journal.
The US Food and Drug Administration pulled sutrovimab, which is produced by GlaxoSmithKline and its partner Fair Biotechnology, from the local market in April.
The drug achieved billions in sales, and became one of the best-selling drugs produced by British companies last year.
The antibody combination cacerifimab-imdivimab, produced by Regeneron and its partner Roche, also generated billions in sales and was one of the best-selling drugs from US companies last year.
The FDA revised its position on the treatment in January, limiting its use to a smaller group of patients, citing its diminishing potency once morest the ‘Omicron’ mutant.
The European Medicines Regulatory Authority still recommends both treatments.