COVID-19 Treatment Drug Sotrovimab Cleared For EU Distribution

GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have made an agreement with the European Commission which will allow the companies to supply up to 220,000 doses of sotrovimab, a drug used to treat COVID-19. This deal will allow all participating members in the EU to purchase sotrovimab in order to treat patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms.

Sotrovimab is a single-dose SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody being used to treat patients with COVID-19 that are 12 years of age or older. This drug is still under review from the European Medicines Agency, but has emergency authorization at the EU level for distribution.

Trials conducted in June for the drug have shown promising results, with a 79% reduction in hospitalization and death observed 29 days into the study. Due to sotrovimab’s success, GSK and Vir have announced supply agreements with multiple countries, with approval in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.

Though the drug is effective against the first strains of COVID-19, it is still unclear how it holds up against variants of the virus. Additional data is still being collected and tested by GSK and Vir, with no known outcomes. However, sotrovimab’s promising results so far are a triumph for COVID-19 treatment, and the drug is likely to be seen on markets at higher rates in the future.