The World Health Organization no longer recommends two antibody therapies for COVID-19, on the grounds that they are likely no longer effective due to the Omicron strain of MERS-CoV and its newer submutants.
The two treatments, designed to work by binding to SARS-CoV-2 skeletal protein to neutralize the virus’s ability to infect cells, were among the first drugs developed at the start of the pandemic.
But the virus has since evolved and mounting evidence from laboratory tests indicates that the effectiveness of the two treatments, sotrofimab and cerifimab-imdivimab, is limited in the face of the latest mutations in the virus. As a result, the US health authority also excluded them.
Experts from the World Health Organization said they strongly advised against using them to treat people with Covid-19, reversing previous conditional recommendations, as part of a series of new recommendations published by the British Medical Journal.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdrew sotrofimab, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and its partner Ver Biotechnology, from the local market in April. The drug reached billions in sales and became one of the best-selling drugs produced by British companies last year.
The antibody combination cacerifimab-imdivimab, manufactured by Regeneron and its partner Roche, also generated billions in sales and was the best-selling drug in the United States last year.
The FDA revised its stance on the treatment in January and limited its use to a smaller group of patients, citing its diminishing potency against the Omicron variant.
The European Medicines Regulatory Authority still recommends both treatments.
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