The US government has secured 500,000 additional doses of AstraZeneca’s (AZ) experimental long-acting antibody (LAAB) combination treatment AZD7442 for COVID-19.
In October 2020, AZ announced an agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to support the late-stage development of AZD7442 and for an initial 100,000 doses of the treatment, plus the option to acquire additional doses in 2021.
AZ also has a separate agreement to supply the DoD with 100,000 doses, meaning the potential US supplies of AZD7442 has been brought to 700,000 in 2021.
“The long-acting antibody combination has the potential to offer almost immediate protection to those who are not able to be vaccinated, to both prevent infection or treat the disease in patients already infected with the virus,” said Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer of AZ.
“The US government’s support is critical in helping accelerate the development of AZD7442, which we believe will be an important tool in the fight against COVID-19,” he added.
AZD7442 is based on antibodies isolated from two patients who had recovered from COVID-19 by researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US.
The LAAB combination was designed using AZ’s half-life extension technology, with the aim of helping the therapy to work for a longer period of time.
All in all, AZD7442 is currently being studied for both the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in five late-stage trials involving over 9,000 participants globally.
This includes the ACTIV-2 and ACTIV-3 studies, sponsored by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In these studies, researchers are evaluating the safety and efficacy of the investigational LAAB combination for the treatment of individuals with COVID-19 in the outpatient and hospitalised settings, respectively.
The PROVENT is also evaluating AZD7442’s ability to prevent COVID-19 infection for up to 12 months in approximately 5,000 participants.
Another trial – STORM CHASER – will evaluate the LAAB as a post-exposure prophylaxis and pre-emptive treatment in around 1,125 participants, while the TACKLE COVID-19 trial is evaluating the efficacy of AZD7442 compared to placebo in treating non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.