A strong epidemic of bronchiolitis strikes several European countries, including France.

To combat it, the European Union has approved a preventive treatment, the AstraZeneca and Sanofi groups, which are developing this drug, announced on Friday.

The European Commission has approved this treatment, nirsevimab, "for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in infants", detailed the French group Sanofi in a press release.

RSV is one of the viruses that causes bronchiolitis, a disease that mainly affects babies and which, although generally mild, causes symptoms that are often spectacular and sometimes require hospitalization.

For the time being, there is no vaccine against this disease which is currently causing an epidemic of unprecedented magnitude for several years in France and other European countries.

A treatment available in 2023

Nirsevimab, sold under the name Beyfortus, is not strictly speaking a vaccine, but works with the same preventive intention: administered in one injection, it aims to prevent the occurrence of bronchiolitis.

This is a synthetic antibody treatment, which directly provides the body with the weapons to fight against the disease.

In contrast, a vaccine allows the body to develop these antibodies itself.

The approval of this treatment marks an important first in the fight against bronchiolitis, even if it will not be distributed quickly enough to influence this season's epidemic.

"Beyfortus will be available for the next season - 2023 - of bronchiolitis," Sanofi said.

It is the first drug to be able to prevent severe forms of bronchiolitis in all babies.

Second leading cause of infant death

Another preventive treatment, also produced by the Swedish-British group AstraZeneca, already exists, but it is only indicated for children at risk or premature babies.

Other treatments of this type should follow.

About 30 vaccines or monoclonal antibodies are currently in clinical trials, according to a summary published this summer by the Lancet Infectious Diseases.

"The prevention of RSV (is) within reach", summed up its authors, recalling that this virus is the second cause of infant mortality in the world, mainly in poor or middle-income countries.

The American group Pfizer notably announced this week positive results for an anti-RSV vaccine, paving the way for future approval.

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  • Health

  • Sanofi

  • Virus

  • epidemic

  • Astra Zeneca

  • European Union (EU)