European Regulators Endorse AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Drug

AstraZeneca’s antibody COVID-19 drug has been endorsed by the European Medicines Agency, Reuters reported Thursday.

The pharmaceutical giant said on Monday that its antibody drug, dubbed Evusheld, was successful at counteracting activity against variants of COVID, including Omicron’s notorious relative BA.2.

"The findings further support Evusheld as a potential important option to help protect vulnerable patients such as the immunocompromised who could face poor outcomes if they were to become infected with COVID-19," AstraZeneca's head of Late Development, Vaccines & Immune Therapies John Perez said.

The EMA found its encouraging position based on trial results of Evusheld, where it was shown that the drug reduced the risk of developing symptoms of COVID-19 by nearly 80%. In December 2021, the United States Food and Drug Administration authorized AstraZeneca's drug for immunocompromised people and those who cannot get sufficient protection from vaccines.

“When the antibodies in Evusheld attach to the spike protein, the virus cannot enter the cells to multiply and is unable to cause COVID-19 infection,” the EMA said, as reported by The Associated Press.

According to MarketWatch, the British-Swedish anticipates the EMA to officially finish its analysis of its point of view to decide if marketing authorization should be permitted.