Covid hope as antibody injection both prevents AND treats infection

AstraZeneca’s antibody cocktail can both prevent AND treat Covid, trial data shows

• New treatment cut risk of serious Covid infection or death by up to 67 per cent
• The injection could offer protection from the virus for between 6 to 12 months 
• It could be vaccine alternative for those who can’t get the jab, and the vulnerable

AstraZeneca’s Covid antibody injection can also help to treat ill patients, according to fresh trial results.

The cocktail is already known to drastically cut the risk of infected people showing any of the tell-tale symptoms.    

The pharmaceutical giant has already asked US regulators for emergency approval to use the drug as a prophylactic.  

Now evidence shows the drug — called AZD7442 — can also fight off the infection in patients battling the disease at home. 

Patients suffering from a mild bout of Covid were up to 67 per cent less likely to be hospitalised or die, compared to volunteers given a placebo.  

A new AstraZeneca treatment which involves injecting modified antibodies into the arm of patient could help both prevent and treat Covid according to results of recent medical trials. It is hoped the treatment could help those who cannot get a normal Covid vaccine or have health conditions making them particularly at risk of serious Covid infection (stock image)

AZD7442 is made from two long acting antibodies, tixagevimab and cilgavimab.

These antibodies have been developed from B-cells donated by patients who recovered from a Covid infection. 

B-cells are a type of white blood cell forming part of the body’s immune system and generate antibodies.

Antibodies are a type of protein found in blood which binds to and neutralises foreign substances like bacteria and viruses preventing them from harming healthy cells. 

However, after an infection has passed, the level of antibodies in the body eventually decreases.

So in AZD7442, scientists modified the two antibodies to last longer than conventional ones. 

This is what gives the treatment the long-lasting protection of up to 12 months according to Astrazeneca.

Antibodies are a crucial part of the immune system, and allow the body to recognise foreign substances like bacteria and viruses and neutralise them.

AZD7442 contains two types of lab-made antibody, and is given to patients via an injection into the arm, similar to some vaccines. 

They are modified by AstraZeneca to be longer lasting than natural antibodies.

The new evidence came from a trial which involved 903 patients, with 90 per cent of them classified as being at high risk due to them having underlying conditions. 

The conditions included cancer, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease.

Results showed that a single 600mg dose of AZD7442 reduced the risk of death and severe illness by 50 per cent, when given within a week of symptoms starting. 

It was even more effective for patients treated within five days of falling ill, with the risk of severe illness or death reduced by 67 per cent.  

AZD7442 could be a new way to help people who cannot have a Covid vaccine for medical reasons, or whose health conditions put them at a particular risk from the virus. 

Professor Hugh Montgomery, an intensive care specialist based at University College London and lead researcher on the trial, said developing new ways of fighting Covid was critical to helping end the pandemic.   

‘These positive results show that a convenient intramuscular dose of AZD7442 could play an important role in helping combat this devastating pandemic,’ he said. 

Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s vice president for biopharmaceuticals research and development said it could help people with the virus and prevent Covid in the first place.

‘An early intervention with our antibody can give a significant reduction in progression to severe disease, with continued protection for more than six months,’ he said. 

An earlier study published in August showed there were no severe cases of Covid among those who were treated with it.

Research of more than 5,000 adults found AZD7442 reduced the risk of developing symptomatic Covid by 77 per cent compared with a placebo.

More than 75 per cent of people in that trial had health issues which put them at increased risk of severe disease or they had a reduced immune response to vaccination.

AstraZeneca has filed a request with the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorisation for AZD7442 as preventative treatment for Covid.

The company did not confirm it was seeking similar approval to use AZD7442 in the UK but did state it is ‘discussing’ the trial data with health authorities.  

It is unknown how much a dose of AZD7442 will cost if the drug is approved for use, but AstraZeneca famously sacrificed billions in profits by only selling its Covid vaccine for £3.60 a jab.

That decision was hailed by the World Health Organization which called the affordable jab a ‘vaccine for the world’.

AstraZeneca became a household name in 2020 due to its work with Oxford University in developing one of the the four Covid vaccines currently approved for use in the UK. 

By the end of September there have been about 50 million Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs administered in the UK, comprising of both first and second doses of the vaccine.

A number of drugs aimed at helping people infected with Covid recover have been put forward for development since the pandemic ripped across the world in 2020.

One of these is dexamethasone, a steroid, found to cut the risk of death in severely infected Covid patients by 35 per cent, a made by UK scientists.

Another is the antibody treatment Ronapreve, which like AZD7442 has been developed from the antibodies of recovered Covid patients. 

The drug, developed by Regeneron, was found to slash the risk of death or hospitalisation in people with severe health conditions by 70 per cent.

Ronapreve was approved for use in the UK on August 20 but NHS medics have struggled to get supplies of the drug for their patients despite it being available in the US since November.

Russian stole blueprint for the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab security sources tell ministers 

Russia was today accused of using a spy to steal the design for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine so they could create their own suspiciously similar Sputnik V jab and win the race to produce world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine.

Security sources have evidence a Moscow mole in the UK was physically able to grab the top secret blueprint – but it is not clear if this was a document from the pharma giant’s lab or factory, or a vial of the finished medicine then smuggled out of the country for analysis.

Home Office minister Damian Hinds claimed today he couldn’t comment on the case – but didn’t deny it – and said: ‘It’s fair to assume there are certainly foreign states who constantly would like to get their hands on sensitive information, including commercial and scientific secrets and intellectual property’. 

MI5 spies have already said that Russian hackers launched repeated attempts to carry out cyber attacks on Oxford University starting in March 2020 – around a month after British scientists announced they had started developing a vaccine. 

In April last year Oxford/AstraZeneca announced they were starting the first human trials – but the following month Moscow said they had invented their own vaccine and by August Putin gave a TV address to the Russian people saying the country had won the global race to create the first Covid-19 jab.

It later emerged that Sputnik V works in exactly the same way as its British counterpart. Both are viral vector vaccines, meaning both use another dormant virus to carry the immune agent that then destroy the coronavirus. The timeline of events suggests that Moscow could have taken the blueprint during the first human trials in the UK.

It raises questions about how senior the mole might be – and if they have been caught. Sources told The Sun that British ministers have been told they have evidence that spies working for the Kremlin had stolen the blueprint for the Covid jab from the multinational pharmaceutical company in order to design their own vaccine. 

Tory MP Bob Seely, an expert in Russian affairs, said: ‘I think we need to get serious about Russian and Chinese espionage. Whether it is stealing the design for Astra- Zeneca or blackmailing us over energy by these authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, we need to get wise to them.’ 

MailOnline has contacted Downing Street for comment. 

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