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IT is generally acknowledged that with new, more transmissible and potentially lethal variants spreading worldwide, vaccines are also unlikely to be the complete solution to managing the pandemic.
Countries urgently need a broader armoury of effective drugs, particularly those that act early in the disease or as prophylaxis.
Accordingly, the developing world is now moving towards administering antibody combinations to treat patients with mild to moderate Covid-19, to better manage emerging variants of concern, stop deaths and reduce the burden on overstretched healthcare systems.
One type of intervention that has shown promise is monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Research overseas has shown that mAbs treatment – when given at an early stage to mild-to-moderate patients – can reduce the progression rate to severe Covid-19 requiring hospitalisation, oxygen therapy and even reduce risk of death.
SINGAPORE - Regeneron Pharmaceutical s Covid-19 antibody cocktail - which can be used to treat patients who are mildly sick but are at risk of severe illness - will likely be used in Singapore once it is available, said the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID).
This follows results from a large British study published on June 16 that the drug can reduce the mortality rate by 20 per cent among people who have been hospitalised for Covid-19 and whose immune system had not mounted an antibody response.
This translates to six fewer death for every 100 people who are seronegative, meaning they had not mounted an antibody response , the study noted.
June 29, 2021
GSK Singapore has signed an Advance Purchase Agreement with the Government of Singapore for sotrovimab
Sotrovimab is currently undergoing review by the Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA) under the Pandemic Special Access Route (PSAR) for interim authorization
Announcement follows the emergency use authorization (EUA) granted to sotrovimab by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a positive scientific opinion by the European Medicines Agency s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP)
SINGAPORE, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ GlaxoSmithKline Singapore and Vir Biotechnology announced an agreement with the Government of Singapore for the supply of sotrovimab, an investigational single-dose monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 who do not require oxygen supplementation and who are at risk of progressing to severe COVID-19.