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AGI: An ‘antibody therapy’ for Covid-19 is being studied in the UK that would grant immediate immunity against the disease and could be given as emergency treatment to hospitalized patients and nursing home residents to help contain the epidemic, he writes The Guardian.
According to the newspaper, The drug could be given to family members, still negative, of people who tested positive to avoid contagion. or be used for people who frequent areas particularly at risk, such as university students, among whom the virus has caused several epidemic outbreaks in Great Britain.
The drug was developed by University College London Hospital (Uclh) and AstraZeneca. The team hopes the study will show that the antibody cocktail protects against the coronavirus for between six and 12 months. If approved, it will be administered to anyone who has been exposed to Covid-19 in the previous eight days.
It could be available from March to April and be decisive especially in the phase in which the vaccine to give herd immunity has not yet arrived. The study involves UCLH, several other UK hospitals and a network of 100 sites around the world.
Dr Catherine Houlihan, a virologist at University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH), who is conducting a study called Storm Chaser on the drug, said: “If we can show that this treatment works and prevent people exposed to the virus from developing Covid- 19, it would be an interesting addition to the arsenal of weapons that is being developed “against Covid-19. The drug would also give immediate immunity, unlike current vaccines that need a few days before guaranteeing it.
