The "miracle" treatment that allowed Donald Trump to recover from Covid-19 last fall will soon be available to Europeans.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) in fact issued, Friday, February 26, a favorable opinion for the provisional use of antibody treatment from the American company Regeneron.
By combining two synthetic antibodies, this drug manages to reduce the amount of virus present in the back of the nose and throat of patients who test positive for Covid-19.
The European medicines regulator claims to have concluded that REGN-COV2 can be used as a treatment in patients "who do not require additional oxygen and who do not have a high risk of progressing to a severe form of Covid-19. "
REGN-COV2 is a combination of casirivimab and imdevimab, two monoclonal antibodies given to patients by infusion, the EMA said.
Manufactured in the laboratory, these synthetic antibodies mimic the action of antibodies naturally produced by the immune system in the event of infection.
Casirivimab and imdevimab, were designed to attack the S protein, which forms the tiny spikes on the surface of the virus, the EMA said.
The antibody clings to these spikes, preventing it from attaching to the human cell to infect it.
An ongoing review of the two antibodies, which began on February 1, was "underway," the European regulator said, adding that "once finalized it will form the basis for a marketing authorization for the EU for this combination ".
France orders thousands of treatments
The announcement follows the Amsterdam-based EMA monthly meeting, where it also recommended approval of six other drugs, including the first oral therapy for patients with certain types of spinal muscular atrophy, a rare and often fatal genetic disease that causes muscle weakness and progressive loss of motor skills.
The US Medicines Agency (FDA) gave emergency clearance for the use of REGN-COV2 in November.
France also announced on Thursday that it had distributed thousands of monoclonal antibody treatments to hospitals.
The EMA, however, did not make an announcement on Friday on the approval of the Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which earlier this month applied for a marketing authorization for the European Union.
A US panel of independent experts met Friday to consider a possible green light for the deployment of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine on American soil.
The European Medicines Agency has so far authorized three vaccines in the EU: those from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.
With AFP
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