The antiviral drug with the slightly complicated name bamlanivimab has now received a so-called emergency license from the Medical Products Agency.
This means that it has not yet been formally approved, but that doctors can still prescribe the medicine.
It is in the approval process and the results look promising so you think you can under controlled forms can benefit from this, says Charlotta Bergquist.
The National Board of Health and Welfare, which requested the emergency license, has noticed a significant demand from the medical profession and has entered into an agreement with the American pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly.
We want to get it here quickly so that we are ready if the spread of infection possibly increases, either in a third wave or in an extension of the wave we are in right now.
We need this in the toolbox while waiting for enough people to have been vaccinated, says Marie State, head of the National Board of Health and Welfare's drug office.
Artificial antibodies
At first, the deliveries are enough for hundreds of patients, but the National Board of Health and Welfare is ready to order more.
We expect deliveries starting in early March.
And based on the reported need, those who need to get the medicine will come, says Maria State.
Bamlanivimab has been developed specifically to treat covid-19 and consists of artificial antibodies given by drip.
When we get sick, we develop different antibodies, but here we have produced a special antibody and very many of it, says Charlotta Bergquist at the Medical Products Agency.
Not for everyone
The drug's emergency license applies in this case to adults and children over 12 years who are at risk of serious illness.
However, people who have already become seriously ill should not receive the medicine, as in such conditions no positive effect has been demonstrated.
It should be started early in the course of the disease for those who risk becoming seriously ill, says Bergquist.