Concerns have been raised that COVID-19 antibody therapy may not be effective against the South African mutant virus.
Dave Riggs, chief executive of US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, said the South African mutant virus could theoretically evade its treatment.
Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody treatment was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration in November last year, and is being used to treat infected people.
Riggs said the drug’s treatment works against the UK mutant virus, but that the South African mutant virus caused a more dramatic mutation in the spike protein, the target of the treatment.
Anthony Pouch, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, expressed a similar view.
Preliminary data suggests that the South African mutant virus can evade some of the protection provided by antibody treatments, which poses an even greater threat, Pouch explained.
Unlike antibody treatments, vaccines or antiviral treatments can also be effective against mutant viruses, developers claim.
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