New drug for coronavirus ready for market

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Pharmaceutical companies Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline PLC have produced the drug VIR-7831 based on monoclonal antibodies, which has shown 85 percent efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 infection, compared to a placebo in a clinical trial.

Based on the positive results, as they announced yesterday, the companies will immediately seek approval for the therapy from health regulators in the US and other countries, in order to add their drug to the arsenal of COVID-19 treatments that help infected people avoid hospitals.

If approved, the drug would be the fourth antibody drug available in the US, after drugs produced by Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline announced that an independent monitoring board recommended that the study be stopped early, as a preliminary analysis of data from 583 participants showed that the drug was highly effective.

The new drug from the two pharmaceutical giants, made on the basis of monoclonal antibodies, could prevent the most severe consequences of COVID-19 and protect people from the current strains of the virus circulating in the world.