WHO Advises Against Use of GSK and Regeneron COVID-19 Antibody Therapies Due to Ineffectiveness Against Current Variants

Intelligent Finance APP learned that an expert panel advising the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that antibody drugs developed by GSK (GSK.US) and Regeneron (REGN.US) for COVID-19 may not be effective against Omicron and its variants, thus recommending against their use.

"Evidence from laboratory studies suggests these drugs are unlikely to work against currently circulating variants," the team said Friday in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Experts strongly recommended against using these therapies, replacing their conditional approval, which was a blow to Regeneron, GSK, and its partner Vir Biotechnology. However, this outcome was not particularly surprising, as GSK and Vir's sotrovimab therapy is unlikely to combat the dominant Omicron BA.2 variant and had already lost authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April.

Regeneron stated that the FDA had excluded the use of the company's COVID-19 antibody cocktail in regions with cases of new variant infections in January, and the therapy has been suspended for a period of time in other parts of the United States. Meanwhile, the company is researching next-generation antibodies that can combat current and future variants.

The expert panel also stated that Gilead Sciences' remdesivir is only suitable for severe COVID-19 patients and should not be used for critically severe cases.