U.K. based pharma company, AstraZeneca, has started the early-stage trial of the COVID preventing and treating antibody, making the hopes firm about the plausible medical treatment of the coronavirus, which has affected more than 24 million people worldwide, till now.
AstraZeneca, a UK-listed public company, is among the leading pioneers in the world who are working to develop a vaccine for COVID. The drugmaker has named the dose, AZD7442, which is a mixture of two mAbs (monoclonal antibodies), and is testing the antibody-based cocktail on 48 candidates of age 18-55 years, checking if the dose is safe and tolerable for use. If the outcomes in favour, then the company is expected to use it to a larger scale for mid to late-stage trials and would go further to employ it as both, a preventive drug and treatment antibody.
The concept of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to treat a disease is advertised majorly by prominent scientists, and the approach is already in use by other drugmakers, Eli Lilly, Molecular Partners, Roche, and Regeneron, to treat the recent virus.
Meanwhile, in June, AstraZeneca got a $23.7M funding from U.S. government institutions to speed up and advance the developments of coronavirus vaccine. U.S. expert in the similar field, Anthony Fauci, called the move by U.K. drugmaker ‘a sure bet’. The company’s shares were 1% up on Wednesday morning session, trading at $114, or 87 pounds.
In the meantime, despite major countries, government, and pharma firms working vigorously towards developing a vaccine, U.S. is also considering the alternative treatments for the virus and on Sunday, has approved plasma use of COVID recovered patients to treat the unrecovered ones. The Trump-led administration has also announced to ease the health standards to fast track the approval of the UK-developed vaccine for use in the U.S.