"Glasgow Smith Klein" heralds the world... A treatment that proves effective against "Omicron"

Glasgow SmithKline and its partner, Fair Bio Technology, announced that their treatment, against the emerging corona virus, had proven effective against the mutated "Omicron", according to laboratory studies.

The two companies indicated, according to the "Wall Street Journal", on Tuesday, that early data indicates that similar treatments work less effectively against the new mutation.

The newspaper says that the results give hope that at least one of the "monoclonal antibody" drugs has proven effective in reducing the incidence of serious symptoms when infected with the "Omicron" mutant.

The idea of ​​treatment is based on antibodies, which are produced by a single clone of cells, or a cell line consisting of identical antibody molecules.

Those results confirm previous laboratory data that the drug works against the alternative.

Those data, published last week, showed that sutrovimab maintained activity against several key mutations in Omicron.

"We are confident that sotrovimab will continue to provide significant benefit to early treatment of patients in the hope of avoiding serious consequences when infected with the virus," said George Skangos, CEO of "Vere", in a statement, adding that "Omicron is slightly weaker than sotrovimab."

Monoclonal antibodies mimic part of the body's immune response to the virus and are usually used early in an infection to reduce the risk of serious disease.

In a large clinical trial, sotrovimab reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 79 percent in people with mild or moderate COVID-19, who are at high risk of developing severe disease, according to the newspaper.

Sotrovimab has been licensed in about a dozen countries, including the United States, which has purchased hundreds of thousands of doses for nearly $1 billion.

On Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the drug "sutrovimab" for the treatment of people with Covid-19 disease.

Two weeks after the discovery of the "Omicron" mutant, experts say that it is spreading more quickly than other strains, but there are initial indications that it is not dangerous.

Laboratory studies are currently underway to find out whether the new mutant, which contains about 50 mutations, a large number that worries scientists, is more likely to spread, in addition to the extent of its resistance to immunity resulting from the first infection or vaccine, and whether its impact is more serious.

And the White House adviser on the health crisis, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Tuesday that it will take weeks to determine the severity of the new Corona virus mutant, Omicron, but the initial indications are that it is not worse than its predecessors, and may even be lighter.

"It is almost certainly not more severe than Delta," Fauci told AFP. "There are indications that it may be even less severe."

He added, "I think we will need at least several weeks in South Africa, and with the number of infections rising throughout the rest of the world, it may take us a longer time to know the severity."

Amanda Pepperkorn, who leads development of the monoclonal antibody in Glasgow, said the company is evaluating whether it could ramp up production of sotrofimab if it turns out to be the only approved treatment that remains effective against the new variant.

And the newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" notes that "it also appears that the experimental antibody treatment developed by Adaigo Therapeutic, which is in the final stage of clinical trials, works well against the new mutant, such as sotrofimab."

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