A new medical advance for newborns?

This Friday, Sanofi announces that it has obtained the green light from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency for nirsevimab, a drug intended to prevent bronchiolitis in infants.

Nirsevimab, jointly developed by the British AstraZeneca and the French Sanofi, which will market it under the name Beyfortus, is an antibody designed to protect infants throughout the circulation season of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus caused by origin of bronchiolitis.

The first passive immunizing agent

The CHMP issued a favorable opinion and recommended the approval of Beyfortus for the prevention of lower respiratory tract infections caused by RSV in newborns and infants, during the first season of circulation of the virus that they face.

If subsequently approved by the European Commission, Beyfortus will become the first and only single-dose passive immunizing agent indicated for all infants, including those who are healthy, born at term or prematurely, or those with certain conditions of health, specifies Sanofi in its press release.

Bronchiolitis is a common and highly contagious respiratory disease, especially in infants 2 to 8 months old, where it causes coughing and labored breathing.

Every year in France, 30% of infants under the age of two are affected.

An antibody developed in the laboratory

“It is the first cause of hospitalization in children under one year old”, underlines Jean-François Toussaint, head of R&D in vaccines for Sanofi.

Beyfortus differs from vaccines using traditional technologies because it is a monoclonal antibody, that is to say an antibody developed in the laboratory, which makes it possible to confer so-called passive immunity on the infant, with a single dose.

The infant has not yet been able to build his immune response, "we give him antibodies that will protect him," explains Jean-François Toussaint.





To date, there is only one vaccine (again a preventive medicine) against bronchiolitis, marketed by AstraZeneca under the name Synagis.

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