AstraZeneca drug cocktail succeeds in late-stage study to treat COVID-19

AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 antibody drug cocktail succeeded in reducing severe disease or death in non-hospitalised patients in a late-stage study, the British drugmaker said on Monday.

The drug, called AZD7442, reduced the risk of developing severe COVID-19 or death by 50 per cent in patients who had been symptomatic for seven days or less, meeting the main goal of the trial.

"An early intervention with our antibody can give a significant reduction in progression to severe disease, with continued protection for more than six months," said Mene Pangalos, executive vice president, biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca.

The company will discuss the data with health authorities, it added, without elaborating.

AstraZeneca is also developing the drug cocktail as a therapy to protect people who do not have a strong enough immune response to COVID-19 vaccines. It requested emergency approval from US regulators for its use as a prevention drug last week.