COVID-19: Monoclonal antibody therapy 100 per cent prevents severe disease and deaths, says study

PTI, Nov 3, 2021, 9:14 AM IST

Monoclonal therapy reduces severe disease and death in high-risk individuals infected with the Delta variant of SARS CoV2 by 100 per cent, according to a new study.
”In the world’s first published study in a peer reviewed, high impact journal, AIG Hospitals along with the Asian Healthcare Foundation, CCMB Hyderabad and Institute of Life Sciences, successfully proved that the Monoclonal Therapy reduces severe disease and death in high-risk individuals infected with the Delta Variant of SARS CoV 2 by 100 per cent,” the city-based AIG hospitals said in a release here on Tuesday.

The key highlights from the study include — More than 98 per cent samples tested were identified as the Delta Variant, 75 per cent patients who got the Monoclonal Therapy became RT-PCR Negative by seventh day and 78 per cent patients got relieved of their clinical symptoms like fever, cough, etc. by seventh day.

The other highlights are that none of the study participants developed severe disease or died and there was no increase in inflammatory markers in these patients which causes severe disease, the release said.

The highlights also include — on follow up, none of the patients reported any post-COVID symptom and the neutralising activity of the Monoclonal Therapy was similar in both the original Wuhan Strain and the Delta Strain, it said.

”The results are astonishing and will shape the public health policy for treatment of COVID-19 especially in high-risk individuals, those above age of 60 or even below 60 but with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, pregnant woman, people with chronic diseases, all will benefit immensely,” said D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals.

”We have clearly demonstrated in our research that when given at the right time, Monoclonal Therapy stops the progression of the disease completely,” he said.

The AIG Hospitals and its research arm, the Asian Healthcare Foundation conceptualized, designed, and funded the study. The patients were recruited from Fever Clinic at AIG Hospitals, the release said.

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (a unit of CSIR) was involved in sequencing the genome of the virus strains collected to identify and confirm the Delta Variant and the Institute of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad tested the neutralising activity of the cocktail against the delta variant in their lab, it said.

The study was conducted on 285 high-risk individuals and published in the International Journal of Internal Medicine, the release said.