Another setback for AstraZeneca. The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group announced on Tuesday that the treatment against the coronavirus it is currently developing has not proven effective in people exposed to the virus.
“The trial failed to achieve the primary goal of preventing symptomatic Covid-19 cases after exposure” to the virus, AstraZeneca said in a statement.
Antibody therapy, codenamed AZD7442, was expected to both prevent and treat the disease. It was in phase 3 of development, that is, in large-scale clinical trials to measure its safety and effectiveness.
The 1,121 participants were adults over the age of 18 who had not been vaccinated and who had been exposed to an infected person within the previous eight days. Treatment only reduced the risk of developing Covid-19 with symptoms by 33%. Trials are continuing to evaluate the remedy in patients before exposure to the virus, and in those who have developed severe forms.
The development of this treatment is funded by the US government, which in turn had made agreements with AstraZeneca to receive up to 700,000 doses this year. In total, the value of the agreements with the United States for the development of the treatment and the doses in 2021 reaches 726 million dollars.
