New Chinese Covid-19 antibody treatment shows promise, as China races to find a cure
- Experimental neutralising antibody treatment able to tackle all variants shown to reduce viral loads and symptoms for 14 Beijing patients
- The therapy fights mutations with a single antibody, which will help cut production costs by one third, an official newspaper reported
The therapy, administered by intravenous infusion, is based on an antibody identified by Sunney Xie Xiaoliang, director of the Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics at Peking University, and his team.
Xie told a conference earlier this month that his team had identified a full spectrum antibody that could tackle all Covid-19 variants in laboratory tests. The antibody was isolated from the plasma of over 60 recovering patients.
While other treatments seek to combine two antibodies to prevent the escape of variants, DXP-604 can tackle mutations with a single antibody, and that will help cut production costs by one third, the Science and Technology Daily report said.
Xie said his team was also working on cutting the dosage by half, according to the report. This would also help to lower costs.
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The other antibody, named DXP-593, turned out to be less effective against coronavirus variants.
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While the trial size for the therapy remains small and no clinical data has been released yet, the Science and Technology Daily report said Singlomics had signed a letter of intent with China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) to conduct phase 2 and phase 3 trials overseas, while phase 2 trials were ongoing in China.
The experimental treatment is among a raft of projects China is working on to find a cure for Covid-19, as it is eager to ensure a low mortality rate before it can consider reopening its borders.
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A monoclonal antibody treatment developed by Brii Biosciences, a US- and China-based pharmaceutical firm, with scientists at Tsinghua University and the Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, may get conditional approval by the year-end, the same paper reported on Monday.
The company earlier said it had submitted trial data to Chinese regulators and applied for emergency use authorisation in the United States.
Antibody treatments are known for their high cost. Many scientists are also working on small-molecule medicines, hoping to ensure wider access to the drugs.
No Chinese candidate has stood out on this front yet. In the West, antiviral drugs developed by Merck and Pfizer have been shown to substantially cut hospitalisation and deaths, though more trials are needed to determine their safety and effectiveness.