Uhe new anti-Covid synthetic antibody treatment, Xevudy, has been approved by the French health authorities, who deem it promising against infection with Omicron, while other drugs have just been withdrawn because of their ineffectiveness against the new variant. Based on the sotrovimab molecule, it will therefore be, for the time being, the only antibody treatment that can be used after a proven infection with Omicron. Another such treatment, AstraZeneca Evusheld, is also considered effective against Omicron, but it is given preventively, especially in people whose bodies are resistant to vaccination.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) “allows early access to a new curative treatment, Xevudy […] of GSK ”, announced this body in a press release. This medication is intended for people over 12 years of age who have just been infected with the coronavirus and who are considered to be at risk of severe form.
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Omicron has made some treatments obsolete
“It is recommended to be administered within five days of the onset of symptoms,” explains the authority. Xevudy is administered intravenously. It is part of the synthetic antibody treatments, several of which have already been authorized since the start of the pandemic. But the arrival of the Omicron variant, more resistant to vaccines and other drugs, has made some of these treatments obsolete.
The French health authorities thus stopped recommending Ronapreve from Roche in early January in the event of infection with Omicron, even if it remains authorized against Delta, the previous dominant variant. Worse, they completely withdrew Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab / etesivimab combination from circulation, its results also being disappointing against Delta.
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Unlike these two treatments, Xevudy “presents a mechanism of action which makes it possible to hope for the maintenance of its effectiveness on the variants, including the Omicron variant”, explains the HAS. “In vitro data suggest that the neutralizing activity of sotrovimab is maintained when that of other available monoclonal antibodies decreases, or even disappears,” she explains.