- Michelle Roberts
- Health Editor, BBC
—
Image source, Oxford University
—
Kimberley Featherstone is one of the patients who received the treatment during the trials.
–
Exactly one year after it was discovered that a cheap steroid drug could prevent COVID-19 deaths, researchers claim to have found another life-saving therapy.
–
This, however, is expensive. It is a powerful infusion of antibodies that is given intravenously to neutralize the virus, rather than damping the body’s inflammatory response to the disease.
–
The results achieved by the so-called Recovery trial (an international clinical trial looking for treatments that may be beneficial for hospitalized patients with COVID-19) suggest that it could help one in three people hospitalized with severe COVID-19.
–
The treatment reduced the mortality of hospitalized people whose immune system has not generated an antibody response, called seronegative.
–
In light of the trial results, experts estimate that for every 100 seronegative patients treated, six lives would be saved.
–
Revolutionary treatment
But only those who have not yet developed their own antibodies to fight the virus should receive the treatment, which costs between $ 1,400 and $ 2,800.
–
Kimberley Featherstone, 37, one of the participants, said: “I feel very fortunate that the trial was already underway by the time I was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 and I was able to receive this revolutionary treatment.”
–
“I am happy that with my participation I played a role in which it could be concluded that this treatment is successful.”
–
Image source, Getty Images
—
The results suggest that the treatment could help one in three people hospitalized with severe covid.
–
The monoclonal antibody treatment, produced by pharmaceutical company Regeneron, binds to the virus to prevent it from continuing to infect and duplicate.
–
In the trial, which was conducted with almost 1,000 hospitalized patients in the UK, it was found to significantly reduce:
–
- the risk of death
- hospitalization time, four days on average
- the likelihood of needing an artificial respirator
—
“When they are given this combination of two antibodies by intravenous infusion the chances of death actually go down by a fifth,” explained one of the experts who led the research, Martin Landray.
–
“What we found is that we can now use antiviral treatment, in this case antibodies, in patients who have a three-fold chance of dying without treatment, and we can reduce that risk for them.”
–
Great uncertainty
Image source, Getty Images
—
Epidemiologist Peter Horby was co-director of research on the new treatment trial.
–
To those who underwent the trial, in addition to the steroid drug, the anti-inflammatory dexamethasone, which reduces the risk of death of the most severe covid-19 patients by up to a third.
–
Peter Horby, the other research director, said there was great uncertainty about whether antibody therapies were the appropriate strategy, when other studies had found no benefit.
–
The use of blood plasma from recovered patients – which contains antibodies that should recognize and fight the virus – has not been effective as a therapy against COVID-19, for example.
–
But the antibody treatment used in the Recovery it contains large doses of two specific antibodies, produced in the laboratory, that are effective in attaching to the pandemic virus.
–
“It’s great to know that even with COVID-19 very advanced, targeting the virus can reduce mortality in patients who have failed to respond to their own antibodies.”
–
—
–
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
—
