by Patrick Wingrove and Maggie Fick
AstraZeneca AZN.L said on Friday it was prioritizing the U.S. market for additional doses of its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) drug Beyfortus, which was approved in July to prevent the disease in infants and children in young age, as the increase in the number of cases exceeds the supply.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in an interview at Reuters’ New York bureau that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had requested more of the antibody treatment jointly developed with the French manufacturer of medicines Sanofi SASY.PA.
“We had to deliver what was needed (for the United States) and next year the volume will suddenly increase significantly,” Mr. Soriot said, noting that the British manufacturer was seeing an increase in demand for the drug “everywhere”
The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On October 20, Sanofi said it was seeing an “unprecedented level of demand” for Beyfortus. Three days later, the CDC issued an alert saying the drug’s supply was limited and advised doctors to prioritize people younger than 6 months or with underlying health conditions.
RSV cases in the United States began a sharp upward trend in mid-October and reached their highest level since January of last winter, with 4,952 cases detected by testing during the week. which ended on November 4, according to the CDC website. The website also shows an increase in hospitalizations, mainly among children aged 4 and younger, during the same period.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants, causing 1 to 3 percent of children younger than 12 months to be hospitalized each year in the United States.
Last year, the United States saw a sharp increase in the number of children under the age of 5 hospitalized for respiratory viruses, including RSV.
Before the approval of Beyfortus, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum
SOBIV.ST had the only preventative treatment approved in the United States for high-risk infants, called Synagis.