One dose of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' antibody therapy cut the risk of contracting COVID-19 by 81.6% for up to eight months, based on its late-stage trial.
The results of a Phase 3 clinical trial conducted by the New York-based biotech company in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) looked at giving the treatment to people who lived in a household with someone diagnosed with COVID-19 within the previous four days.
It stated four subcutaneous injections of REGEN-COV, its monoclonal antibody treatment, protected uninfected people from getting COVID-19 by 81.6% over a two-to-eight-month follow-up period, up from 81.4% after one month.
Four injections of the treatment are considered one dose of a combination of the monoclonal antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab.
"These results demonstrate that REGEN-COV has the potential to provide long-lasting immunity from SARS-CoV-2 infection, a result particularly important to those who do not respond to COVID-19 vaccines including people who are immunocompromised," Dr. Myron Cohen, a physician who leads the monoclonal antibody efforts for the National Institutes of Health, said in a news release.
According to the FDA, Regeneron's antibodies target COVI'Ds spike protein to prevent the virus from penetrating cells. Monoclonal antibodies, according to the CDC, "mimic the immune system's ability to fight harmful pathogens."
In recent weeks, Regeneron isn't the only company to release positive Covid therapy data. After combining the treatment with an HIV medicine to help it last longer in the body, Pfizer revealed Friday that its antiviral coronavirus pill reduces the chance of hospitalization or death in high-risk adults by 89%.
In October, Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics released data on an antiviral pill that they claimed reduced Covid hospitalizations and deaths by half for patients with mild or moderate cases.
REGEN-COV is currently available due to a U.S. government emergency use authorization. Patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at risk of developing severe symptoms are being treated by the Food and Drug Administration.
It's also been given emergency FDA approval as a post-exposure preventive treatment for some people who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19, aren't fully vaccinated, or are immunocompromised, and have already been exposed to the virus.
