UK will be first to trial ‘antibody cocktail’

The UK will be the first country to begin clinical trials of a new coronavirus antibody treatment developed by drugs giant AstraZeneca aimed at people with a weakened immune system who cannot be vaccinated.

A participant in Manchester will be the first in the world to rece ive the pharmaceutical company ’s new “antibody cocktail” as part of the trial to test whether it will prevent Covid-19 for up to year.

The clinical trial programme will recruit 5,000 participants, which includes 1,000 people from nine sites in the UK.

The aim of the trial is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a combination of two long-acting monoclonal antibodies – man-made proteins that act like natural human antibodies in the immune system.

Sir Mene Pangalos, executive vice-president of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, said the treatment, which can be injected or administered intravenously, is aimed at those who have a weakened immune system and cannot be vaccinated as well as those who are unlikely to respond to immunisation – which may include hundreds of thousands people in the UK.

He said: “There is going to be a significant number of people – even in a world where vaccines are highly effective – who will not respond to vaccines, or in fact will not take vaccines.

“So hav ing monoclonal antibodies as po ten t ia l therapeutics is also important.”

The UK Government has an in- principle agreement to secure access to one million doses of the antibody combination, dubbed A Z D 74 4 2 , if it is successful.