For Your Health

[basserdan]

The drug that gives 'instant immunity' to coronavirus? UK trials new antibody therapy that can stop people who have been exposed to COVID becoming ill and it could save MILLIONS of lives across the globe

* Drug would offer immediate and long-term protection to patients when it would be too late to offer a vaccine

* It could be given as an emergency treatment to hospital inpatients, care home residents and university students to help reduce the spread of the virus

* Scientists from the University College London Hospitals NHS (UCLH) have injected ten people with the drug

* In the U.S. there have been more than 18.7million Americans infected with coronavirus and 330,246 deaths

By Rachael Bunyan For Mailonline
14:01 EST, 26 December 2020

A new antibody treatment with the potential to give people instant immunity after being exposed to Covid-19 and prevent illness is being trialled by scientists in the UK.

The drug would offer immediate and long-term protection to patients when it would be too late to offer a vaccine, potentially saving thousands of lives.

It could be given as an emergency treatment to hospital inpatients, care home residents and university students to help reduce the spread of the virus.

People who live with someone has caught COVID or been exposed to them could be injected with the drug to stop them becoming infected, even if they have not had a coronavirus vaccine.

British scientists from the University College London Hospitals NHS (UCLH) have already injected ten people with the drug as part of the new trial called Storm Chaser, with an aim to trial the new treatment on 1,125 people globally. The participants received two consecutive doses of the drug.

They hope the treatment would provide protection from Covid-19 for between six months to a year.


A new antibody treatment with the potential to give people instant immunity after being exposed to Covid-19 and prevent illness is being trialled by scientists in the UK. Pictured above a patient at a hospital in Houston, Texas Getty Images

Scientists from the UCLH have also begun a second clinical trial named Provent, to examine the use of the antibody for people who may not benefit from vaccines, such as patients with a compromised immune system, or those at increased risk of Covid-19 infection due to factors such as age and existing conditions.

UCLH injected the ten people - including medical staff and university students - as part of the Storm Chaser trial at its new vaccine research centre after the study entered phase three trials on December 2.

Key groups of the trial include healthcare workers, students who live in shared accommodation and patients who have been recently exposed to anyone with Covid-19, as well as those in long-term care, the military and industry staff such as factory workers.

In the first trial, the antibody, known as AZD7442, has been developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which has also created a vaccine with Oxford University that is awaiting approval for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Article continues below:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9088541/The-drug-gives-instant-immunity-coronavirus-UK-trials-new-antibody-therapy.html