Covid-19: early treatment extended to certain patients already hospitalized

Europe 1 with AFP 6:07 p.m., September 3, 2021

Ronapreve, a treatment for Covid-19 with synthetic antibodies, until then reserved for the prevention of the disease and the fight against its early forms, was also authorized Friday in France at more advanced stages in patients already at the hospital. "As of September 3, 2021, given the identified medical need for the management of patients with an advanced stage of Covid-19 disease, we are expanding the use of the dual monoclonal antibody therapy casirivimab / imdevimab", announced in a press release the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM).

This treatment, marketed under the name Ronapreve by the American laboratory Regeneron, was already authorized against early forms of the disease in people at high risk, and to prevent its appearance in immunocompromised.

It can now be given at more advanced stages, in patients already hospitalized and at risk of developing a severe form.

"This concerns immunocompromised patients, patients at risk of complications related to comorbidities, patients aged 80 and over," detailed the ANSM.

One of the main therapeutic avenues

The treatment will be reserved for those who need so-called non-invasive oxygen therapy, which excludes in particular intubations, if they have not themselves developed antibodies against the disease.

Synthetic antibody treatments are one of the main therapeutic avenues against Covid-19, but have so far been prescribed preventively or shortly after the onset of symptoms.

Shortly before the summer, positive results had been recorded by Ronapreve for patients already hospitalized, as part of the large European clinical trial Recovery.

Some scientists had qualified these results, however, pointing out that the treatment only prevented a limited number of deaths.