The World Health Organization (WHO) has just issued a favorable opinion on the use of a third treatment against Covid-19. Called Regeneron, this drug based on synthetic antibodies is however only recommended in very specific cases.
-1632494042.jpg "Covid-19: WHO recommends Regeneron but only for certain patients")
- An expert opinion published in the “BMJ” recommends Regeneron, a treatment with synthetic monoclonal antibodies.
- However, this treatment should be reserved for patients “with non-severe forms of Covid-19 who are at high risk of hospitalization”.
Some patients who have contracted Covid-19 will soon be able to benefit from a new treatment. This Friday, September 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recommends the use of Regeneron. According to an expert opinion published in the British Medical Journalthese synthetic antibodies must however be reserved for specific patients.
A treatment reserved for elderly or immunocompromised patients
Those are the “patients with non-severe forms of Covid” corn “at high risk of hospitalization”, such as the elderly or immunocompromised who may benefit from Regeneron. Treatment is also recommended for patients with “of a severe or critical form and who are seronegative, that is to say who have not developed their own antibody response” despite SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“For all other types of Covid-19 patients, the benefits of this antibody treatment are unlikely to be significant”say the experts.
Two synthetic monoclonal antibodies
Developed by the biotechnology company Regeneron, the treatment of the same name is marketed by the Roche laboratory under the name of Ronapreve. It is the combination of two synthetic monoclonal antibodies, casirivimab and imdevimab which, injected intravenously, should help the patient’s immune defenses to fight against Covid-19 infection. These include the treatment received by former US President Donald Trump.
This WHO recommendation for Regeneron antibodies is based on the results of various clinical trials showing that the treatment “probably reduces the risk of hospitalization and the duration of symptoms in patients at higher risk of severe forms” of Covid-19. The UN organization is also motivated by the results of the British Recovery trial which showed that synthetic antibodies “probably reduce the risk of dying and being placed on mechanical ventilation in patients who have not yet developed their own antibodies”.
A treatment at 1,700 euros per dose
For the time being, however, Ronapreve remains largely inaccessible to patients because of its price: approximately 1,700 euros per dose. “Given the high cost and low availability of this treatment, (the international drug purchasing agency) Unitaid is in the process of negotiating with the Roche laboratory (…) to obtain lower prices and an equitable distribution across all regions, especially low- and middle-income countries”, the WHO said in a separate statement. WHO is also asking Roche to “to transfer its technology to enable the manufacture of equivalent versions of this treatment, so that all patients who need it can have access to it”.
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