The United States has signed contracts worth about $ 1 billion for doses of COVID-19 antibody therapy developed by Britain’s GSK and US-based Vir Biotechnology, the two pharmaceutical companies said today.
U.S. orders will increase the total number of doses to be distributed to at least 750,000 worldwide, they said, without specifying how many doses of the drug sotrovimab the U.S. has ordered so far.
However, other public drug deals include 10,000 doses for Canada and up to 220,000 doses for the European Union. The value of these orders is not known.
Deliveries to the US of the treatment, called Xevudy, are expected by December 17 and the government will also have the option to purchase more doses by March 2022, GSK and Vir said in a joint statement.
GSK and Vir sotrovimab has been shown to reduce the risk by 79% in trials.
Sotrovimab is for injection. It belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies and are compounds that are created in the laboratory and mimic the body’s natural defenses.
The drug was licensed for emergency use in the United States in May to prevent exacerbation in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. The European Medicines Agency has given the go-ahead for its use by member states, although it is pending approval at European Union level.
“Given the ongoing evidence that it is capable of sustaining action against tried-and-tested variants of anxiety, including Delta, we believe that sotrovimab will continue to be important,” said Vir Scang, CEO of Vir.
Last week, GSK and Vir announced that antibody therapy had shown in one trial to work just as well when injected into the arm or serum, possibly for convenience.
Sotrovimab sales generated 130 130 million (US $ 175 million) in revenue to GSK in the first nine months of 2021.
Similar products are offered or developed by Eli Lilly, Regeneron, AstraZeneca and Celltrion.
Last month, US authorities said the government would control the distribution of sotrovimab in the country.
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